


Different Course of Events

by The_Awesome_Frost_Ninja



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Alive!Tadashi, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-01 16:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 44,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2780078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Awesome_Frost_Ninja/pseuds/The_Awesome_Frost_Ninja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiro always knew that nightmares were not to be confused with reality, but what happens if a nightmare turns out to be prophetic? COMPLETED</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Heya, this is more first official BH6 story. This can also be found on my primary account on fanfiction.net. Please enjoy!

The fire siren was bleeping and the heat and ember were beginning to shroud the night’s sky. The showcase building was on fire and people were in a panic as they all ran out from the building.

Tadashi caught a young woman coughing from smoke. “Are you alright?”

She replied as she began to try and calmly reply back, “Yeah, I’m ok, but Professor Callaghan is still in there!”

Hiro knew the look in Tadashi’s eyes and he desperately clasped unto Tadashi’s arm as he yelled, “Tadashi no!”

Tadashi knew what his brother was asking behind those words, but this time he couldn’t do it, not even for Hiro. "Callaghan is in there. Someone has to help." He bolted up the stairs and as he ran his hat slipped off his head.

In the midst of his panic Hiro picked up Tadashi’s hat as it landed by his feet. Hiro couldn’t stand it, he had to go in after him, but as Hiro had made up his mind he was blown backwards by an unseen force. The next thing he knew he was on the ground and as he looked back up the building was completely on fire. Hiro stared at the fire as he finally realised.

“TADASHI!”

* * *

  
Hiro shot up with a loud gasp for air. He was covered in a cold sweat and his chest was heaving as he looked around at his surroundings. It wasn’t leftover debris, he was in his room. He stumbled out of bed hitting the floor as he went to check the other side of the room and there he was, his big brother asleep in bed, safe and sound but most importantly alive. Hiro let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding as he continued to watch his brother from a far.

He knew watching someone sleeping was creepy, and he knew if Tadashi found out he would never let him live it down. But it provided him the comfort that it was just a bad dream. He convinced himself it must’ve been caused by stress.

Suddenly Aunt Cass’ voice was head from outside the door. “Hiro! Tadashi! Time to get up! You two have a very big day ahead!”

Tadashi groaned and moved his pillow over his head in protest. Tadashi was usually an early riser, but he still had his days where he just wanted to sleep in. It gave Hiro a chance to slip back to his side of the room as he looked at the poster about the showcase that Tadashi stabled up unto the wall.  
  
 _‘Pull yourself together Hamada.’_ Hiro knew that he needed to have his head in the game. He needed to go to that nerd school. He shouldn’t let something like a stupid dream stop him. Besides it was just a dream, they’re harmless, Tadashi was fine and nothing was going to happen to him, or that’s rather what he kept telling himself.

He turned, ran and leapt unto the Tadashi’s bed and started jumping on it, “Tadashi, time to get up! C’mon you big nerd!”

“Agh! Get off me, you knucklehead!”

* * *

As they ate breakfast Hiro just kept staring at Tadashi, like he told himself before, it was just a dream, but he couldn’t help but be at least a little shaken up.

“Do I have something on my face or something?” Tadashi asked and that’s when Hiro knew that he had been staring too long.

He quickly saved himself from the truth and embarrassment as he remarked, “Yeah you got a lil’ something all over your…oh wait, never mind that’s just your face.”

Tadashi shook his head at Hiro’s lame joke. “Even for you Hiro that was so lame. You can come up with better than that.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“So coming up with good comebacks is a challenge for you?” Tadashi was obviously amused with himself as he gently, but not too gently, kicked Hiro from under the table. Hiro would’ve started an all-out war against Tadashi if their aunt hadn’t halted the ‘fight’,

“Boys, please, not at the table.”  
Tadashi went back to drinking his milk with a smile that he got the last word in. Hiro rolled his eyes, dream or not, Tadashi was fine.

* * *

 

Everything about the day seemed too familiar for comfort, it was like Hiro had lived the day before, but it didn’t bother him or really come across as a massive problem. And in that instant in time he was too happy to even think about that. He had just got into SFIT. He was ecstatic. Tadashi told their Aunt and the others to go ahead as he pulled Hiro to the side.

Hiro smirked, “I know what you’re going to say.” He put on a mockingly deep voice, “I should be proud of myself because I’m finally using my gift for something important.”

Tadashi had a larger smirk than of that of his little brother’s, “Oh, no. I was just going to tell you that your fly was down for the whole show.”

“Ha-ha, hilarious.” Hiro sarcastically rolled his eyes, but a part of him couldn’t help but wonder…. “What!?” He quickly zipped up his fly and elbowed Tadashi as he began to laugh. The two quickly got over it as Tadashi smiled.

“Welcome to nerd school, nerd.” Tadashi was so proud and Hiro knew that he was, and that meant more to him than Tadashi would ever know.

“Hey, I..uh…” Hiro didn’t know how to express what he wanted to say. He felt slightly embarrassed but he knew he could swallow that ‘manly’ pride for a moment or two. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you so, you know….Thanks for not giving up on me.”

Tadashi smiled. He was about to tell Hiro that he never had to thank him for that. He didn’t need to ever say that, not to him. But the moment was spoiled by a siren that echoed through the air.

The screeching was too familiar to Hiro, it was the same to his dream. _Please don’t be what I think that is._

He followed Tadashi as he ran back to the building as the sounds of screaming mixed with the sirens. Hiro froze at the sight. _It was just a nightmare. This can’t be happening!_

The building was completely on fire from the inside. Everything became identical to that horrid dream. It was all coming true, right down to Tadashi asking a young woman if she was alright for her to reply exactly the same that Tadashi's mentor, Professor Callaghan, was still inside the burning building. Without even thinking, Tadashi was about to run toward the building, but he was stopped as his younger brother grabbed unto his arm.

"Tadashi no!" Hiro pleaded, only after saying it he realised that he was repeating what he had once said. He saw Tadashi's conflict about it. Tadashi looked at the building than back to Hiro. Tadashi knew that he couldn't leave his brother outside alone in the chaos but he had to do the right thing.

"Callaghan is in there. Someone has to help." Hiro slightly gasped at the repeat of hearing those words once again, Hiro's nightmare was now a reality.

His heart was pounding and he began breathing too quickly, under different circumstances Tadashi would've seen his younger brother's distress, but he didn't in that moment. Hiro loosened his grip long enough for Tadashi to think Hiro was letting him go so he tried to attempt to run toward the blazing building.

_No, no, no, no, no!_ It couldn't happen. Not again. The memory of the dream and the current reality were clashing together. Tadashi was going to die. Hiro suddenly couldn't breathe. He clutched his chest and collapsed down to his buckling knees. His hearing and sight began to fade in and out. He couldn't see it happen all over again. Once was enough.

"TADASHI!" Hiro yelled with everything he had inside him. He needed his big brother and he needed him alive.

* * *

Tadashi wasn't even half way up when he automatically stopped at the familiar and pained yell of his name. He turned around only to see the sight of his little brother on his knees and clutching his chest.

"HIRO!" In that moment Callaghan was forgotten and without thinking he began to run back to Hiro. He was back down the stairs and to Hiro's side quicker than what anyone thought was humanly possible. He only found a small relief in the fact that Hiro was still conscious, but that was before he discovered that Hiro wasn’t breathing normally.

Tadashi put a strong and steady hand on his shoulder, "Hiro! Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Both were stupid questions to Hiro. No, he was definitely not okay and his moron brother was about to run to his fiery tomb, there was _'obviously'_ nothing wrong with that. Hiro just began to spout words that ended up mostly incoherent. All Tadashi heard was something like 'you'll die' but that didn't make any sense to him.

"Hiro, breathe. Deep breaths."

With what little breath that Hiro could save he tried to explain, "The.......the building..........is about to….just don’t go in, don’t do it!”

Tadashi just furrowed his eyebrows in further confusion, but before he could reply like on cue the building exploded. The pair were knocked over to the ground by the force of the blast. All Tadashi could hear was a ringing before it finally died down and he saw the building now completely engulfed in flames. A realisation suddenly struck him. _Wait...Hiro!_

Tadashi frantically looked to his side just to see Hiro sitting up, seemingly uninjured, but what worried Tadashi was that Hiro was blankly staring at the flames from the building infront of them.

"Hiro?" He softly shook his shoulder and felt Hiro trembling under his touch. Hiro didn't respond, his eyes kept on the fire like it had him entranced. Tadashi felt a spike of panic go through him, he tried again as he moved himself infront of Hiro to block his gaze from the flame.

"Hey c'mon buddy. Look at me." Hiro's gaze was still elsewhere, it was like Tadashi wasn't there. Tadashi tried his best keep calm as he was suddenly overwhelmed by the fear that Hiro could be slipping away from him.

In a last attempt to bring Hiro back to reality, Tadashi cupped the sides of Hiro's face and pleaded, "Hiro, please. I'm right here, look at me. Don’t look at the fire, look at me. C’mon, comeback to me." It was a few heart clenching seconds before Hiro finally responded as he blinked and realised who was infront of him,

"T-Tadashi?"

Tadashi let out what sounded like a sob in relief.

"Oh thank God." Tadashi whispered to himself as he attempted to pull Hiro in an embrace, but Hiro wasn’t having any of that. Hiro began to slam his fist against Tadashi’s chest. The punches were getting harder and much more aggressive, nothing like when they were playfully fighting, these were real punches. Tadashi tried to shield himself.

“Hiro! Hey! Stop! What are you-” Hiro cut him off as he angrily yelled at him and with every word came a punch.

"YOU-STUPID -IDIOT! WHAT-WERE-YOU-THINKING!?"

Hiro stopped punching and he tried to shove Tadashi, but failed to push him right over. He continued punching once again. "AND YOU CALL ME A KNUCKLEHEAD?! WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU....."

Tadashi caught Hiro’s fist before it could collide with his face. Hiro's angry facade began to crumble down, and he began shaking more than before but Hiro still tried to keep composure of his voice, "What would happen-....what would’ve I done if you...?"

Tadashi felt his own chest tighten as he was hit by a wave of guilt as he knew exactly what Hiro meant. Before Hiro was about to break into pieces right infront of him, Tadashi pulled Hiro into his arms.

Hiro weakly tried to pull away in an attempt to stay mad, but Tadashi in response just held him tighter, he wasn't planning on letting Hiro go anytime soon. Hiro eventually melted into the hug and listened in silence to his brother’s breathing and constant heartbeat.

Tadashi was there right with him. His dream didn’t come true. He stopped him in time. He was alive. Hiro couldn't stop himself from trembling even though he knew that the calamity had been avoided. Tadashi rubbed soothing circles on Hiro's back. It was only a whisper but Tadashi heard what Hiro said next and it almost broke him.

"That could've been you in there."

It hit Tadashi hard that Hiro was right. If Hiro hadn't called him back he would've been in there during the blast with Callaghan. But from a change from his usual selfless nature he felt no regret about Callaghan. Tadashi had no doubt that if he went into the building he wouldn't have gotten to Callaghan in time. They both would have shared the same fate.

Tadashi knew that he unknowingly had to make a choice; his brother or mentor. When push came to shove and Tadashi ran back to Hiro, he made his choice and he held no regret. He chose Hiro. And he was thankful because to him in that moment it was the right choice. Tadashi didn't care if those thoughts were selfish or not, but he also knew that Callaghan was still in the building when it exploded. He decided he would feel guilty about it later, all that mattered right now was Hiro.

* * *

 

Tadashi forced himself to pull slightly away from the hug enough so he could look Hiro in the face. Hiro wasn’t trembling anymore, but he looked clammy. Hiro instantly knew that his brother was already scanning him for any injuries, but he didn’t get the chance to do it completely as they heard a panicked shout.

“Tadashi! Hiro!” Aunt Cass almost tripped over herself as she ran down to the two and immediately starting inspecting the two as best she could. “Are you two alright? I saw the smoke and then heard the explosion and I thought-”

“Aunt Cass, we’re ok.” Tadashi interrupted as he attempted to reassure her, “We’re just a little shaken up.”

“Oh my boys!” She gave out a large sigh of relief. “Thank goodness you’re both alright.” Aunt Cass put a hand on both of their faces. Both of the boys leant into the loving touch of their aunt.

The moment was interrupted when they all heard a familiar and loud voice from a distance. “That woman has to be the Flash, I’m telling you guys now cause I’m calling it.” Of course Fred would be the one to comment on Aunt Cass’ speed.

The group visibly relaxed at the sight of both Hiro and Tadashi. They were alright. It wasn’t long before the firefighters and paramedics arrived. The paramedics wanted to give both Tadashi and Hiro quick examinations before letting the two go. It took a while to pry Hiro away from Tadashi, he wasn’t letting Hiro go, if it weren’t for Hiro pulling away first and giving the nod to tell Tadashi that it was ok, the group knew that they would’ve had to get a crowbar between the two to get Tadashi to let go.

They had two different paramedics check over the brothers. Hiro was only a couple feet away from Tadashi, but Tadashi still watched him from a distance like a hawk. Neither of the brothers had anything serious, just a couple of grazes and bruises.

“Call us if you need anything.”  
“We’re here if you need us.”  
“We’ll drop by tomorrow to see how you two are doing.”

Tadashi couldn’t be more thankful for his friends. They really cared about him and Hiro. They said their farewells and the brothers finally got into Aunt Cass’ car and she began to drive them all home. Tadashi leant on the cool glass of the window and let out a deep breath.

It was a long and eventful day, but he was just thankful that everyone came out of it alright, well, everyone except Callaghan. Sorrow finally began to fill his heart as the gravity of what happened started to settle in. It was his mentor, he really looked up to Callaghan, and he was a good man. He felt guilt trying to take its place over sorrow, but that’s when he looked to Hiro. He saw him sitting in silence and staring off into the distance.

Tadashi lightly nudged Hiro’s shoulder, “Hey.” Hiro looked to him after a delayed response. Tadashi slung his arm over Hiro. “You should try and get some rest, we should be home soon.”

Hiro didn’t even attempt to protest as he leaned his head against his Tadashi’s shoulder.

Tadashi slightly moved his head on top of Hiro’s. He completely understood that it was impossible to get to Callaghan in time, but all those ‘what ifs’ flooded his mind, but they were silenced by his want to be there for his brother. Like he had told himself before, he could feel guilty later, Hiro came first.

* * *

Tadashi thought it was a miracle but Hiro was fast asleep by the time they got home. Aunt Cass helped open doors as Tadashi carried Hiro back into the café and up the stairs before Aunt Cass kissed both Tadashi and a sleeping Hiro on the cheek before wishing them both sweet dreams.

“I’ll be down here if you need anything.” She tried to whisper shout back up the staircase. Tadashi nodded and continued to walk back into his and Hiro’s room.

He carefully placed Hiro back on his bed and took off Hiro’s shoes before pulling the covers over him. Tadashi brushed his hand through Hiro’s hair before he whispered,

“Goodnight Hiro.”

Though as soon as Tadashi went to his own bed, Hiro began to uncomfortably twitch in his sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

 

Tadashi was awoken from his dreamless sleep by the sounds of rustling and tossing and turning coming from the other side of the room. Tadashi immediately pulled himself up to see Hiro writhing and groaning. 

Still in a daze of drowsiness from an interrupted sleep, Tadashi jumped up and shuffled to the other side of the room and carefully sat on the edge Hiro’s bed. Hiro was beginning to tangle himself with the covers on his bed as he tried to kick around.

“N-no! Please don’t go!” A nightmare. The memory of the fire was still fresh and the raw panic still remained. Hiro looked as if he was going to fling himself out of bed and three feet into the air as he was still trapped in the clutches of the nightmare.

Tadashi immediately attempted to soothe his brother, “Hiro, shhh-shhh- shhhh, it’s alright. It’s ok.”

Tadashi began running his hand through Hiro’s messy hair. He kept muttering soothing words until Hiro began to calm down. It was all second nature to Tadashi. He used to do when Hiro had nightmares when they were still kids, even after many years later the method of comfort was still as effective as it once was years ago.

Hiro returned into a deep sleep just a few moments later. But Tadashi didn’t return to his own bed, he stayed sitting on Hiro’s bed and continued to stroke his hair. He wanted to keep the horrors of that nightmare at bay and far away from his brother.

From what Hiro had said in his sleep it sounded like he was dreaming of the moment when Tadashi was about to run into the fire. He had done that to Hiro. He left him in the midst of the heat filled air and frantic panic. Tadashi only had himself to blame for putting Hiro through that.

He stayed like that for a good hour before he eventually slung his arm over Hiro and began sharing one bed with his brother. After their parents died Tadashi vowed that he would always be there for Hiro and to be there for him when their parents couldn’t. He had almost broken that promise. Tadashi wondered what his parents would say if they had saw him about to break that promise. He finally looked to Hiro’s sleeping face. Hiro was safe and that provided Tadashi for his own need for comfort, but there was still the issue of what he had put Hiro through.

Suddenly Hiro unconsciously curled up closer to him. Tadashi couldn’t help but smile before it morphed into a frown.

 “I swear that I won’t ever put you through that again, and no matter what happens I’ll protect you, that much I can promise you.”iro HiroHHHHHhh

It was only a few seconds later that Tadashi slipped under the sweet bliss of sleep.

* * *

The funeral was sobering and silent. It was a miserable day in both weather and emotion. Robert Callaghan was a well-known and respected professor and inventor of robotics. Anyone who was a student under Callaghan were in a state of silent grieving, but none of them were as silent as Tadashi. The coffin began to be lowered. Hiro thought that it was pointless, why have a coffin if there was nothing left to bury? They had never found Callaghan’s remains, all what was left were scattered ashes.

Tadashi was one of the few that lingered near the grave as they began to push dirt over the coffin. Aunt Cass put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. He tried to return the smile as the two turned away as she lead Tadashi away from the grave. Tadashi was really quiet, he didn’t say much at all for the whole funeral and it didn’t like he was going to say anything soon.

 Tadashi had a look on his face that Hiro hadn’t ever seen before and it was unsettling. Hiro couldn’t quite explain it, but he also didn’t really understand what Tadashi was going through. Callaghan was his teacher and role model and from how Tadashi spoke of him it sounded like they shared a close student and teacher bond. Hiro wanted to say something, but what could he say? But at a funeral were there really any right words to say to someone?

The after burial reception was held in the large hall of the university. There was a framed photo of the professor on a table with burning incense.

Hiro just watched Tadashi from a far during the reception as he wondered to himself on what it was like. Hiro wouldn’t be exactly lying if he said that he had never experienced loss of someone close. He had lost his parents, but he couldn’t remember any of it, whether if he unknowingly suppressed the memory into his subconscious or if he too young, he didn’t know, but to him his parents were like strangers, he never really knew them.

The only people that he really treasured throughout his life were his Aunt Cass and Tadashi. But then again, he did almost lose Tadashi at that horrible night, it had only been a week ago but it still felt like it happened moments ago. A shiver went up his spine as he remembered the heat and the panic of that night. The sounds of the sirens echoed through his mind. Suddenly the image of Tadashi running into the fire surfaced.

Hiro was fortunately pulled out of the memory by a familiar feminine voice, “Hiro, are you alright?” It was Honey Lemon.

Hiro snapped out of it and exhaled deeply as quiet as he could to regain his nerves, he gave her a forced lop-sided grin, “I should be asking you that. How are you taking it? He was one of your professors, wasn’t he?”

Honey Lemon didn’t see Hiro’s red flags as her expression saddened. “While I didn’t major in robotics I knew him. I spoke to almost all the teachers on campus. He was nice. It’s sad, he didn’t deserve to die the way he did.”

“I gotta agree with Honey Lemon.” Gogo overheard and approached the two.

Honey Lemon’s face softened as she continued, “But in all honesty, whilst it is sad, I’m more worried about how Tadashi’s taking it.”

The three turned their heads to see Tadashi sitting across the room trying to force a smile at Fred’s attempts to cheer him up whilst Wasabi was sitting next to Tadashi disapprovingly shaking his head at Fred. Hiro couldn’t agree with Honey Lemon more. He was worried about Tadashi more than ever. Hiro may have been Tadashi’s little brother but that didn’t mean that he didn’t want to protect Tadashi as much as Tadashi wanted to protect him. Hiro wished he could protect him, but the sadness of loss wasn’t something that he could shield him from.

* * *

It was only later that night when Tadashi was sitting up in his bed reading through an old textbook that Hiro finally gained the courage to speak to him.

“Hey Tadashi?”

Hiro knew that he probably just needed a little time to himself, but he still wanted to finish what he was going to say. “I just want you to know that I’m here if you need to talk, so….you know, if you need anything just give a shout.”

Hiro was about go back to his side of the room before he shook his head and stubbornly waited for Tadashi to say something back. Tadashi shut the book and finally looked back to Hiro’s worried eyes. A ghost of a smile traced his lips as he got up from his bed and ruffled Hiro’s hair as walked past him.

He said nothing but the message was clear. _Thanks Hiro, but you don’t have worry about me, I’ll be fine._

Hiro watched as his brother now went to retreat to the bathroom down stairs. Hiro couldn’t help but think about the dream he had about the fire in that moment. He dreamt about it before it happened. He dreamt that Tadashi ran into the building before it exploded. He stopped it from happening. 

Hiro refused to believe it was a ‘vision’. It was completely illogical. He didn’t know what it was, but premonition or not he was thankful he had seen it. If he didn’t have that dream, then he wouldn’t have been able to stop it, even though he only managed to stop it by having a panic attack. And he thought that if Tadashi was being broken up about Callaghan and if that was the price he had to pay for his brother to be alive then he would gladly accept it.

* * *

It was a few weeks after the funeral and the university started back up classes. Hiro thought he would be head over the hills kind of happy by going to SFTI, but it felt slightly disappointing. Educationally it was amazing, he even had his own lab right across from his brother but it rooted deeper than a need for knowledge. All he originally wanted was to go to the university with Tadashi, but with Tadashi acting the way he was it wasn’t as fulfilling as Hiro hoped it would be.

Tadashi dived into work. Hiro didn’t know exactly what he was up to half the time but he would always be tinkering with something and he would arrive home much later than he needed to be.  He started shutting the door to his lab, and when the door was shut Hiro didn’t dare to go and interrupt his brother on whatever he was working on.

Tadashi was still himself but he was more distant and driven into projects that led to no result, which was nothing like what Tadashi used to do. He even started bring materials from his lab home into his side of the room.

Hiro had tried reaching out at times, but every time there was a new excuse. When Tadashi first started university two years ago, he was busy most of the time but he still found time to spend with Hiro despite it all. Hiro would never admit to it, but that would be his favourite time of day. But now it felt like that Tadashi was pushing himself further and further away, and it hurt Hiro to not know why.  

It had even gotten to the point where the others were ready to step in and say something. Luckily, Hiro managed to convince them to give it more time. He thought to himself that if Tadashi wanted his space, then that’s what he would give him.

Hiro just finished a long day of lectures and Tadashi was yet again locked in his lab for another day. Hiro stared at the closed door, he had gotten far too accustomed to the sight. He knocked on the glass.

“Tadashi? I’m going home now, are you coming?”

A part of him still had hope that Tadashi’s answer would be different for once, but like always it wasn’t. “I’ll catch up with you later, I just need to finish this up.”

Hiro couldn’t help but grumble to himself, “Yeah, cause I’ve never heard that one before.” To Hiro what Tadashi meant was that, ‘I won’t be home until past midnight and I’ll be gone in the morning before you wake up.’

Hiro sighed as he turned and started throwing a couple of books into his bag to bring back home. He immediately turned in reaction to hearing someone knocking on the door to his lab.

“Hey Hiro, you okay in there?” Fred asked as he, Honey Lemon and Wasabi came to see him.

Hiro nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine Fred.” Hiro knew that the three had seen the display, but it definitely wasn’t the first time.

Fred started grinning, “Looks like someone needs a hug!” He had his arms up ready to attack.

Hiro’s eyes widened as he began frantically shaking his head, “No, no. Really, I’m fine. No need to hug me.” Hiro started to back away.

“Fred, please just don’t.” Wasabi sighed. He had to at least say that over three times a day at a minimum, not that Fred ever listened, but he still tried.

“Everyone needs one sometimes!” Fred looked ready to hug a now cornered Hiro, Honey Lemon was about to say something to try and stop it, but Hiro was thankfully saved as Gogo finally arrived to the scene and she slapped Fred across the back of the head.

She blew a bubble of bubblegum then popped, “Stop being stupid, Fred.”

“Uh-ouch.” Fred emphasized as he rubbed the back of his head. It was hard for Hiro to believe that that all four of them were best friends. He had to admit to himself though, he thought it was great.

Hiro laughed, “Thanks Gogo, but you didn’t need to do that.” Hiro smiled in amusement.

Gogo turned around with one hand resting on her hip as her eyes narrowed at the door across the hall, “Yeah I didn’t have to do that, but you know what I should do? I should go and talk some sense into that older brother of yours.” And there it was once again.

Gogo was the most annoyed at how Tadashi was acting. It really fired her up. Tadashi wasn’t just closed off from them, but he was shutting out Hiro as well and that didn’t sit too well with her. She didn’t understand it at all. And it was nothing like the Tadashi she knew.

Hiro let out a large breath, “Please Gogo, don’t. He’ll come around.”

Gogo frowned. It had been a solid month since the fire. Gogo didn’t understand why Hiro didn’t confront Tadashi about his hermit behaviour weeks ago, but she also knew he would’ve had his reasons. Hiro knew Tadashi better than any of them, so she knew she had no room to argue.

“I’ll see you guys later.” Hiro slung his bag over his shoulder and walked away with his head down. He just hoped that he could believe his own words.

Hiro looked up to Tadashi for as long as he could remember, he could write a whole book about how much he knew about Tadashi. And he knew that from what Tadashi was doing, he was feeling guilty about something. Hiro assumed it was because of Callaghan, but he couldn’t be sure, but that was the only option that made the most sense to him. Hiro was wrong though, it wasn’t about Callaghan, not completely at least.

He said a quick hello to his Aunt Cass before he left to go into his room. As soon as he threw his bag on the ground and flopped unto his bed in exhaustion. He remained lying on his bed as he just felt himself slipping into sleep.

The day hadn’t been all that tiring, but for some reason he just couldn’t seem to keep his eyes open.

* * *

Hiro was running- no, he was chasing. Who he was chasing after? He couldn’t remember who. Hiro felt his own voice yell a name, but it was disoriented to him yet it was still so familiar to him. The name was at the tip of his memory but he never heard it clearly.

He finally felt himself come to a halt as he stared at an old building. It looked like an old warehouse, many of the windows were smashed and broken. No doubt it was abandoned.

There was something about the building and he felt compelled to see what resided in the building. He knew there was a reason. Hiro felt so close to discovering what it was. He was so close….

* * *

Hiro’s eyes snapped open as he shot up with a large gasp for air. The images were still lingering in his mind.

Hiro sat up in his bed as he pondered to himself what had just happened.  He was confused. It wasn’t even a bad dream, but the lingering feeling of it felt all too familiar. He had only felt it one other time. It was the morning he woke up of the showcase. He looked to the time to see it had only been an hour since he went to bed.

Realisation hit him across the face. It was like his dream about the fire. He hadn’t thought about the dream in weeks.  Was it like the dream about the fire? Did he dream of a future event again? The keyword would be ‘again’.

Hiro furiously shook his head. Seeing the future was impossible. And say if he could see the future, why only now?

Hiro suddenly heard Aunt Cass call from down the stairs. “Hiro sweetie, dinner’s ready!”

“I’ll be down in the minute” Hiro attempted to stand, but he suddenly felt his legs shake under him and he quickly sat back unto his bed. He took deep breaths. What was wrong with him? It had to be coincidently, he refused to believe it. _Pull yourself together! The dream means nothing!_

“Hiro, c’mon, before your food gets cold!”

“Yeah Aunt Cass I’m coming down now.” He tried again, but this time it was with ease and he made his way down the stairs.

* * *

Hiro couldn’t get the image of the warehouse out his head. As Aunt Cass tried to talk to him at dinner he just kept zoning out and he ended up only taking to bites of the food.

“So do you have classes tomorrow?” Hiro didn’t reply as he continued to stare off in thought. “Hiro?”

“Huh? Oh-no, I don’t have any more lectures this week.”

“Are you feeling alright? You look like you’re somewhere else, what are you thinking about?”

 _Oh it’s nothing, I’m just thinking about the fact that I just had a dream that was really strange and it felt identical to when I dreamed that Tadashi running into the building before it blew up and then he di-_ “It’s nothing, Aunt Cass, it’s just been a long day and I’m not that hungry.”

She was concerned for her nephew but she decided to believe him this once, “Yeah, of course, you go and rest. I’ll clean up.”

“Thanks Aunt Cass, g’night.” Before Aunt Cass had a chance to say it in return Hiro was already up the stairs back into his room.

 Hiro sat at his desk and pulled out some paper. He knew that whatever he saw meant something, but he just didn’t know what. He found himself absent-mindedly drawing sketches of the warehouse. He decided that belief or logic aside, if his dream meant something like the one before the fire then he wanted to know why, like why was this warehouse important?

* * *

Tadashi yawned before he made his way up the stairs as quietly as possible. He was confused when he saw a light coming from his shared room with Hiro. He made his way up the final staircase.

“Hiro?”

Hiro shot up from his chair as he quickly flipped over and threw his multiple drawings of the warehouse over before Tadashi could see. When Tadashi walked in, Hiro innocently smiled as he just stared at Tadashi for a long while before he finally managed to say something ,

“Tadashi you’re home.” He had wished for ages for Tadashi to be around long enough to have a decent conversation, but the comical part of it was that he got it his wish the one time when he didn’t want it.

“Yeah, but it’s like…” Tadashi looked to his watch, “It’s two in the morning, what are you still doing up?”

Hiro smiled sheepishly, “Nothing, just…..drawing. Just something I’ve been working on, besides I don’t have any classes tomorrow so it shouldn’t matter.” If he wanted to tell him about the dream then the opportunity was right infront of him, but Hiro didn’t want to tell Tadashi about the dream, not yet. It would only make it real, and all of it was too surreal for Hiro’s liking. And it was to add to the fact that Hiro didn’t know if it was going to come true or not, it was more of a feeling, and that’s what scared him.

Tadashi noticed Hiro’s odd behaviour and attempted to take a peek over Hiro’s shoulder to see what he had been drawing. Hiro shielded the sketches by discreetly leaning more over the paper as he slowly pushed them into a pile. “You know it’s late. We should go to bed.”

He half pushed Tadashi away as he climbed unto his bed. Hiro threw over his covers and turned himself away from Tadashi. Hiro had to admit that he was rather mad at him, it was his first proper conversation with Tadashi in days and it had to be at 2am in the morning.  Hiro stubbornly curled up in his blankets, bitterly grumbling purposely, “You’re going to be gone again in a couple of hours so you should probably get some sleep.”

Tadashi swallowed as he felt a lump forming in his throat. “Hiro, listen I know I haven’t been-” Tadashi bit his lip, what could he say? He wanted to tell him, but if Hiro knew what he was really up to then it could...

“Just get some rest, alright?” He pulled up the blanket over Hiro’s shoulder. Tadashi’s hand lingered before he pulled away. He knew Hiro was mad, but Hiro couldn’t know or be a part of what he was doing, it could put him in danger.

Hiro wanted to toss the blanket off himself, he was fourteen years old, he didn’t need to be tucked in, but he had missed his brother’s company enough to not protest against it, but he didn’t miss him enough to not stay mad.

Tadashi turned off the light as he made his way to his side of the room. He let out a large sigh before he sank into his bed. He knew all too well that he was becoming distance, but he convinced himself that it was all for a good reason, or at least he hoped so.

* * *

 

Tadashi didn’t want to prove Hiro right, but he was up and gone by seven o’clock. He was already back at his lab at SFIT. Tadashi leaned back in his chair as he ran his hand through his hair before he shoved his hat back on.

He didn’t want another day to be wasted. The previous day he had found nothing new, he was at a stand-still with his progress. He started pulling out his notes and flipped around his make-do pin up board.

A knocking was then heard from the door. He stared at the door before he stood up to go open it. _Who would that be at this hour-_

As soon as he opened the door Gogo almost knocked him over as she walked past him and all of his friends began piling in.

 “What are you doing? I thought you would all still be home by now?”

“Well we were, but then yesterday we were all like, ‘Hiro may have not wanted us to do it, but we should go talk to you anyway because it needs to stop’, because you’re pretty much acting like a hermit.” Fred would’ve gone on if Honey Lemon didn’t put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from jabbering on.

Wasabi managed to say his own take on what Fred had tried to say, “What he means to say is that we’re all worried about you man, you haven’t been like yourself. So we’re basically having an intervention.”

“Or maybe you could explain that.” Gogo pointed to his large pin up board of pictures with faces and newspaper articles on the fire. That’s when it hit Tadashi that he hadn’t let his friends in his lab for that exact reason. He tried to attempt to cover it, but his friends started going through his things and notes before he could stop them.

“What is all this?” Fred read on of Tadashi’s notes aloud with a confused expression, “ _Aru Akise  (Reporter at showcase) – alibi checks out_.” Tadashi snatched the notes out of Fred’s hands.

“Was there something you wanted to tell us?” Gogo wasn’t asking, she was demanding.

Tadashi sighed, he wanted to keep them out of it, but he had no choice but to explain at that point.  “I’m going to be honest with you guys and say that I’ve been trying to solve a mystery.”

“Are you like a detective now? That is so cool.”

Ignoring Fred, Honey Lemon asked, “Mystery? Are you talking about the fire? Wasn’t it just an accident?”

Tadashi started shaking his head as he straightened his papers. “That’s what I thought until I found out that it wasn’t.”

Their eyes widened with interest as Tadashi started from the beginning as he placed his notes back on his desk.

“Ever since Callaghan’s funeral there’s been something gnawing at the back of my mind. The police ruled the fire as an accident, but even now they still don’t know the cause.  So I thought that maybe I could find out the cause so I got a rough list of what inventions and machinery were there. I thought that it could’ve been an electrical fire from a malfunction.”

Tadashi wondered over to some leftover boxes of scraps of metal and cords and pointed down at them. “I started making mini simulators with fake replicas after doing some research on them and asking a few of the inventors that were around town. After all the testing I found that none of them could’ve set off a fire in that degree and for it to spread so quickly.”

Tadashi folded his arms and leant against his desk, “I only figured that out a few days ago, but it’s clear to me that the fire wasn’t an accident. Someone started it.”

Wasabi looked back to Tadashi after looking at the board, “Tadashi, this is huge. Have you told the police?”

“I did try a while back, but they said that unless I had a name than the information was useless because I didn’t have hard enough proof.”

“Are you serious?” Honey Lemon interjected.  She frowned, annoyed at that fact, “But you have your evidence right there.” She pointed to the boxes of scraps.

Tadashi exhaled deeply at the memory of dealing with the policemen. “They said that it wasn’t enough, so in other words I’ve been on my own on this one.”

Wasabi sighed as he looked around once again. “Why didn’t you tell us before that this is what you’ve been doing? “

“I’ve been already digging deep in this mess long enough to know that it could end up getting dangerous.” Tadashi had to admit that he didn’t like being so distant, but all he was trying to do is protect them because he knew that it was risky. “Besides, Callaghan was my professor, and I feel like I owe it to him to find his killer.” No one knew what to say to that so they stood in silence before the subject was changed.

“Wouldn’t that be more reason to tell us?” Gogo crossed her arms as she popped her gum. She was voicing what everyone was thinking, but didn’t dare to say, “Especially since it’s so dangerous.”

“Because if anything got too crazy, I knew you would guys wouldn’t be in harm’s way, especially if the person who started the fire is who I think it is.”

“Who is it?” Tadashi showed hesitance at Gogo’s question, he knew if he told them it would mean that they were now involved. Gogo groaned loudly,

 “C’mon Hamada, we’re involved now if you like it or not and we’re here to help.”

“She’s right, don’t push us away, Tadashi. We can help.” Honey Lemon added with one of her common smiles.

Wasabi nodded in agreement whilst Fred couldn’t hold in his excitement, “Oh man, this is going to be great, this is like if we were secret agents or something!”

Tadashi sighed as pulled open a drawer and pinned a picture up on the board right in the centre. “From what I’ve gathered no one has more motive than the CEO of Krei Tech himself, Alistair Krei.”

Honey Lemon stared at Krei’s picture, “Why would Krei of all people start a fire?”

Tadashi drew a large circle around Krei’s head with a red marker pen, “The fire wasn’t just started for kicks. It was to cover his tracks.”

* * *

Hiro was right, Tadashi was gone before he woke up yet again. He didn’t expect him to stay, but it still bothered him like it did every other day, but Hiro had a new problem at hand.

Hiro stared at his drawings. He felt like it was familiar, but he knew he had never been to the building. Hiro shook his head, he had just had a weird dream about a strange warehouse. It probably meant nothing. It had to have meant nothing.

Hiro scrunched up his nose as he grabbed the sketches and he started to throw them around and rip them.  In the middle of grabbing on to one he sliced part of his index finger. He immediately dropped the paper.

“Ow.” He stared at his now bleeding papercut.

 Hiro only meant it to be a pointless mutter to himself, but that was before he began to hear an inflating on the other side of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Baymax has arrived! (well not yet yet, but soon) Also don’t worry, more on detective Tadashi on the next chapter. And the short distance between the brothers will mend…..soon enough.
> 
> Next time on DCoE:
> 
> “Why haven’t you told Hiro? He deserves to know.”
> 
> Tadashi shook his head and his face instantly sobered to look hard and almost cold,
> 
> “If I do tell him then he would want to help and in the process he might get into some serious trouble especially since he might be a red flagged target. I want to avoid that for as long as possible. I would prefer to have him in the dark about it and be safe.”
> 
> “Woman up. Hiro can handle it, and if he gets into any trouble than he has us, but more importantly, he has you.”


	3. Chapter 3

"Cover his tracks?" Honey Lemon wondered for a moment, before she figured out the answer for herself. "You think he started it so he could steal something."

Tadashi nodded. "Yes, and in the end there was only one invention that really caught his attention at the showcase." It was clear from Tadashi's tone what he was talking about.

Wasabi was the first to say it aloud, "Hiro's microbots."

Tadashi nodded again, frowning, "He would've stolen one if I didn't stop him. But maybe if I had just let him then maybe the fire might not have…." Tadashi trailed off, changing the subject, "When Krei was asked about the incident he and his company claimed to have 'no comment', if that isn't suspicious, I don't know what is."

Gogo stared at Tadashi trying to make sense of it all, there was one thing to her that was sticking out like a sore thumb. "So you're saying that Hiro's microbots were possibly stolen, and you haven't actually told him, the inventor?"

Tadashi's silence told Gogo all she needed to hear.

"Why haven't you told Hiro? He deserves to know."

Tadashi shook his head and his face instantly sobered to look hard and almost cold,

"If I do tell him then he would want to help and in the process he might get into some serious trouble. I want to avoid that for as long as possible. I would prefer to have him in the dark about it and be safe."

Tadashi didn't understand why Gogo was getting so mad about it, but then he knew that someone ought too. The distance he was putting between himself and Hiro wasn't ideal and he knew that even Hiro was beginning to get angry with it, but he couldn't risk Hiro getting himself into danger.

Gogo groaned, "Woman up. Hiro can handle it, and if he gets into any trouble than he has us, but more importantly, he has you."

Tadashi bit his lip. Gogo had a very clear point, but the thing was that he didn't trust himself to look out for Hiro. Not ever since the fire.

"She has point, Tadashi." Wasabi added. Tadashi didn't have to look at his friends individually to know that they all agreed with Gogo.

"Fine, I'll strike up a compromise. I'll tell Hiro after you help me with one thing." Tadashi smirked as he pointed to a picture of the Krei Tech building up on his pin up board. "We're going to hack into Krei Tech's systems."

* * *

Hiro just stared as the giant marshmallow looking robot finished inflating and began to unintentionally knock over Tadashi's things as he tried to make his way over to the other side of the room.

Hiro could do anything but blink as the robot eventually made his way toward Hiro.

"Hello, I am Baymax your personal healthcare companion."

Hiro still partly confused replied, "Hey, Baymax I didn't know that you were here." Hiro wondered to himself why Tadashi brought Baymax home, let alone just leaving him in their room.

"I heard a sound of distress. What seems to be the trouble?"

Hiro snapped out of his thoughts, "Oh, I just got a little papercut. I'm fine."

Baymax's chest began to light up with the familiar sight of pictures of multiple faces. "On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?"

Hiro pondered on it for a moment, "A zero? It only stings a little, but I'm fine, really. Thanks, you can shrink now." Hiro was about to walk away before he froze as Baymax lifted him from the ground and cradled him. "What are you doing?" Hiro muttered as he was now mortified.

"It is alright to cry. Crying is a natural response to pain."

Hiro frantically rolled out of Baymax's hold, "I'm not crying! It's just a papercut." Yes, papercuts did hurt, but he wasn't going to cry over it.

Ignoring Hiro, Baymax stated, "I will scan you for injuries."

Hiro demanded, "Don't scan me." But it was too late.

"Scan complete."

"Unbelievable." Hiro shook his head, his first thought being that Baymax still needed some work on and that his command coding was shot.

"You have sustained a minor laceration to your index finger. I would suggest a bandage." Baymax waddled back over to Tadashi's side of the room and pulled out Tadashi's first-aid kit from under his bed. Part of Hiro wanted to ask how he knew that Tadashi's first-aid kit was there, but he just watched the robot as he got out what he needed and shut the lid of the box.

Hiro continued to watch as Baymax came back with a single band-aid. Hiro let Baymax place the band-aid over his finger.

"Thank you." Hiro stared at his bandaged finger, "Anything else you wanted to add?" Hiro meant it as a sarcastic and rhetorical question.

Baymax not understanding the concept of sarcasm, continued, "And your hormone and neurotransmitter levels indicate that you are experiencing mood swings, common in adolescents. Diagnosis: puberty."

"Woah, what!?" Hiro began to back himself away trying to get away from the awkwardness of the conversation. "Okay, you're done now. You can shrink."

Baymax then began to try and explain about where body hair will start to grow, before Baymax got too far with it Hiro quickly shouted, "Thank you, that's enough."

Baymax kept trying to explain the symptoms of puberty as Hiro climbed on top of him, trying to squish him down. "Time to get back in your luggage."

"I cannot deactivate until you say that you are satisfied with your care."

Hiro pushed down on Baymax's balloon like material head, "Fine. I am satisfied with my- aghh!" Hiro was thrown into the air by a rebound effect from Baymax's head. He was flipped in the air and landed flat on his face unto the ground. Hiro groaned about to get back up unto his feet before he saw something twitching in his jacket under his bed.

Both confused and intrigued, Hiro grabbed the jacket and pulled out what was in its pocket. "My microbot?" It began twitching more frantically in the palm of his hand. "This doesn't make any sense."

"Puberty can often a confusing time for an adolescent flowering into manhood."

"No, it shouldn't be reacting like that unless there are other microbots, but they were all lost in the fire." Hiro tried not to let himself slip back to the memory as he placed the microbot into a glass petri dish and he continued to watch it. The microbot still twitched around, Hiro shrugged, "It must be broken."

Hiro calmly turned away and collected up the scraps of paper and began to pile them into the bin beside his desk. As Hiro was preoccupied, Baymax picked up the petri dish and watched as the microbot bounced around within the dish.

"Your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere."

Hiro threw more of the ripped paper into the bin. "Oh yeah?" Hiro deeply exhaled as he spoke in a monotonous tone, "Why don't you find out where it's trying to go?"

Baymax cocked his head to the side, "Will that help stabilize your pubescent mood swings?"

Hiro stared at one of his sketches of the warehouse he didn't rip, not listenting to what Baymax was saying he nodded and muttered, "Yeah, absolutely." Hiro still couldn't help but wonder what the warehouse meant, little did he know that he was about to find out.

Suddenly Hiro heard a click of a door closing. He immediately looked around his room to see that Baymax was nowhere to be seen. He called out for the robot a few times as he searched the room. He wasn't panicking until he heard a screeching of a car from the traffic outside.

Hiro leapt toward his window and looked out to see Baymax walking in the middle of traffic, luckily enough, cars stopped before they had the chance to hit him.

"What!?"  _I didn't think he was serious!_

He threw on his jacket as he slammed into the sides of the walls as he ran. Hiro yelled after Baymax repeatedly as he ran after him. Hiro ran after him through traffic, people, buildings, and alleyways. Hiro almost slammed into every wall when he needed to turn and even slipped for a moment to accidently land on a stray cat. He eventually caught up to Baymax after he went down an alleyway.

He saw that Baymax had finally come to a halt. Hiro ran over to him. "Are you crazy?" Hiro asked breathlessly. "What are you doing?" Hiro breathed heavily to catch the breath he had lost.

"I have found where your tiny robot wanted to go."

Hiro rolled his eyes, "I told you, it's broken. It's not trying to go…." He looked down and took the dish off of Baymax. The microbot kept shoving itself into the direction of the building. That's when Hiro finally looked up and really looked at where the microbot had lead them.

Hiro froze at the sight. It was a warehouse, but it wasn't just any warehouse, it was  _the_  warehouse. He just stared with his mouth open. It was officially the second time he had seen something of a future event. It finally hit him that the name he was calling out in the dream was Baymax's. It all became clear to him.

Hiro took deep breaths. He had no time to freakout about it, whatever was in that warehouse had answers, to what, he didn't exactly know. He stepped forward to see a the door was locked and chained. "Locked." Hiro grunted.

Baymax pointed up, "There is a window."

It was a fair way up. Hiro had an idea. He used Baymax as his personal ladder. He reached for the window as he stood on Baymax's head.

"Please exercise caution. A fall from this height could lead to bodily harm." Hiro almost slipped upon hearing Baymax, it vaguely reminded him of his brother.

It made him wonder if he shouldn't go in and call Tadashi first. Maybe his brother could help. Hiro stubbornly shook his head. Tadashi could wait, these answers couldn't. Hiro climbed through the window. He stood back up dusting off his shirt. He could do it himself and besides, he wasn't exactly alone.

Hiro looked over the ramp, everything was rusted and it looked like no one had been there in years. It was both eerie and creepy, but also a little exciting, to Hiro at least. He turned around to a sudden suctioning like sound.

"Oh-no." Baymax was stuck in the window. "Excuse me as I let out some air." He began to let out air and it sounded like a balloon letting out air with someone pinching the edges together to create a high pitch screeching. Hiro couldn't help but cringe at the long and loud noise.

Baymax stopped for a moment, Hiro asked, "Are you done?" Baymax finished letting out the rest of the air.

Sighing, Hiro dragged Baymax in. "It will take me a moment to reinflate."

Hiro kept his hands up as if to hush the robot, "Yeah, just keep it down." Hiro left Baymax to reinflate and he began to descend down the metal staircase.

* * *

They stared up at the Krei Tech building. Wasabi's nerves began to act up. "This is a bad idea….Have I mentioned this is a bad idea, because it is. We could get arrested, or worse!" He had his doubts.

"So what's the game plan?" Fred was getting giddy from the excitement.

"All we're doing is placing a little bug into their mainframe so we can dig up there little dirty secrets, it's easy."

"How are we going to do that?" Honey Lemon asked. "Their security is tight."

"First we'll get in. In five minutes they have a tour for intern applicants. All we need to do is find a small blind spot or cause a distraction long enough so I can stick this under a computer." Tadashi held up a small robotic like ball, it looked similar to one of Hiro's microbots, but they knew that it held a completely different purpose. "After we do that, it's done." The plan sounded simple enough, but they weren't spies, they were university students.

"Interns? They don't let just anyone in even when it's just a tour. They send a keycard prior." Honey Lemon didn't want to shut Tadashi's plan down, but it had to be said.

Tadashi had a sheepish grin as he pulled out five keycards from his jacket.

Gogo took a keycard from his hand, it had the Krei Tech logo watermark, they were real. "But how?"

"I pulled a few strings, the front counter attendant is a regular at my Aunt Cass' café, and besides…" He paused for a moment. "You'll be surprised where sweet talking can get you."

They all stared. Tadashi was always seen as the angel of their group, he was selfless and just all out a wonderful person, but now he was showing a bit of his dark side. It was both intriguing and frightening.

"If you don't want to do it, it's fine, I completely understand." Tadashi didn't want them involved to begin with, and like Wasabi said, they could get arrested.

They looked to each other. Fred was the one to voice in his own way that they were with. "And miss out on this sweet operation? I think not! I'm calling it, 'operation: show and go'."

"Show and go?" Gogo stared at Fred. What on earth would they be showing?

"Show them that we mean business, but go before they find out." Fred nodded to himself. It made sense to him.

Tadashi slipped on some sunglasses, "Alright, well here we go."

* * *

The tour guide went into extreme detail of the history of Krei Tech. They had gotten past the security and they blended in with the intern applicants.

"And here is where we have test trials for our new inventions." The woman stopped and pointed toward the glass. They watched the scientist was strapping on a robotic leg on a man. As soon as he strapped it on the leg flung up, accidently hitting the scientist in a place where everyone watching simultaneously muttering, "Oooo."

Any one of the male gender cringed at the sight, knowing the pain all too well. The security guards in the room rushed to the scientist to help him away from the failed test.

Tadashi used this opportunity to look around to spot a nearby computer. This was his chance. He managed to get the other's attention to make them realise what he was hinting at.

Gogo whispered loud enough for only the five of them to hear, "There's a camera in the top right corner, it rotates upon movement. Someone's using it to monitor movement."

"So we need a distraction?" Wasabi asked.

"Coming right up." Fred sprang into action before anyone had time to protest. "Excuse me!" His hand shot up.

All eyes were now on Fred. The tour guide looked at him in a minor confusion. He definitely didn't look like an applicant, he looked too...chill.

"I'm sorry, but there aren't any toilet breaks until the end of the tour." The tour guide adjusted her glasses before scribbling something in her black book that she carried around.

Fred shook his head. "Oh-no, it's not that. I have a question."

"Oh…What's your question, Mr….." She waited for a reply, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Fr-" Gogo discretely elbowed Fred's side. That's when he realised that was one of the first rule of a secret mission, never give your real name. "-ank. My name's Frank."

"Very well, Frank. What is your question?" She waited impatiently as she folded her arms.

"I was wondering-WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?" Fred and pointed up toward a random window. Everyone looked toward where he was pointing.

"Where?" A young woman asked as they were all now uneasy.

"Over there! Right there!" Fred pointed to another side of the room. All eyes were on Fred, including the camera that was now zoomed in on where Fred was pointing.

"Go, here's your chance." Wasabi lightly pushed Tadashi toward the direction of the computer. Tadashi was slipping away from the group to the computer. Tadashi slipped passed and was almost at the computer.

The tour guide rolled her eyes as she looked toward the window Fred had previously pointed at, "That is a pigeon."

She was about to turn back and Honey Lemon knew if she turned she would see Tadashi near the computer, so she did the first thing she could think of. Honey Lemon collapsed to the ground.

"I think she just fainted!" A young man yelled.

Tadashi quickly stuck the small bot under the monitor of the computer, the bot squished down and blended in unseen. Tadashi quickly made his way back into the crowd.

Honey Lemon sprang back up after someone mentioned calling an ambulance. "Oh look, I'm alright now." Wasabi helped Honey Lemon back up.

The tour guide knew the five looked out of place to begin with and she felt like something was off, but now she had an excuse to ask them all to leave after the whole fiasco. The five were escorted out by security and they took the keycards off of them as the security guard kicked them out.

"Cause trouble in Krei Tech again, you won't come off with just a warning, understand?"

They all nodded in intimidation of the large and buff man. As soon as he left they all let out a breath that they had all been holding.

"That was a close one." Honey Lemon sighed, but then she smiled.

"Too close." Wasabi added, but he had to admit, it was actually quite thrilling.

Tadashi nodded, "Don't worry, I got the bug in. We don't need to do it again and besides, I think we can agree that we're not doing that again."

"Oh well, that's a bummer, I could go for a round 2. That was awesome."

They all stared at Fred knowing that he was completely serious. Tadashi let out a huff of laughter. It had to be one of the most dangerous things that any of his friends had ever done. Fred wanted more and the others looked like they were still processing the embarrassing events that followed during the distraction. He had a lot to thank Fred and Honey Lemon for that.

Tadashi pulled off his sunglasses. "Alright, let's head back to the lab."

* * *

Hiro followed the direction where the microbot was leading him. It lead him to the bottom of the stairs to see a screen with light and movement from the other side. Hiro slipped the petri dish in his pocket and he quickly grabbed a nearby broom in case he needed to fight. Not that a broom was a very good choice of weapon, but it was better than nothing.

He quietly made his way toward the screen as he looked in, the movement wasn't from any person, it was robotic. He put down the broom and looked around the corner.

The machines were mass producing, and they were all being dropped into a black barrel. Hiro looked into the barrel.

He gasped, "My microbots?" He picked up a larger bunch of them and let them slip through his fingers as he came to the horrible realisation as he looked up to see over fifty more barrels full of them, "Someones making more." A pit in his stomach began to form, he knew that whoever was making more had some sort of ill intentions.

He looked around to see a board filled up with a map with symbols and pictures that Hiro didn't recognized. Hiro was narrowed his eyes as he attempted to get a better look, before his train of thoughts was interrupted.

"Hiro."

Hiro screamed and jumped back, but he quickly realised that it was just Baymax.

"You gave me a heart attack." Hiro complained, letting out a deep sigh.

Baymax began rubbing his hands together as they began to glow, "My hands are equipped with defibrillators. Clear."

Hiro threw his hands up, "Stop, stop, stop! It's just an expression!"

Hiro's attention was then drawn to the familiar sound of a mass group of microbots moving. He turned to see a large wave of them rising from the barrels.  _That's not good._

"Oh-no." Hiro had to agree with Baymax there.

Hiro began to run, only to realise Baymax wasn't keeping up. Baymax was just taking one small step at a time. Hiro in the midst of the panic, complained, "Oh come on!"

Hiro ran back toward Baymax as he said, "I am not fast."

"No kidding." Hiro grabbed hold of the robot and dragged him behind him as he ran.

After failed attempts to kick and punch down the door, Hiro ran around with Baymax, running away from the incoming microbots. Hiro had been in trouble before, but never like this. Hiro had never run so fast in his life and he was chasing Baymax in the middle of traffic just ten minutes prior.

Hiro dragged Baymax up the metal staircase to go back out the window they came in from, Hiro looked behind to not only see his microbots, but a man with a kabuki mask controlling them.

Hiro knew that the man wasn't going to invite the two out for tea, he wanted to harm them. Hiro tried to push Baymax out the window first so the two could get out, but it was failing. He looked back to see the masked man was getting closer.

Hiro pushed Baymax through the window harder to only flip around the window with Baymax still stuck and him hanging unto Baymax about to fall.

Baymax quickly shielding himself as the microbots tried to attack, but they luckily managed to completely push Baymax out the window.

As the two fell, Hiro felt Baymax wrap his arms around him, shielding him from a harsh landing. They hit the ground and Hiro bounced off of Baymax unharmed. Hiro knew he had to time to thank Baymax, they needed to get away.

Hiro grabbed unto Baymax, "Let's get out of here, c'mon. Hurry!" The masked man didn't follow, the two had escaped.

* * *

Hiro tried to explain to the police what had happened. He knew it sounded crazy, and that's exactly why the policemen didn't believe him. He tried to get Baymax to explain, but he went from polite robot to drunken balloon in two seconds.

Hiro didn't understand what was going on, "What's wrong with you?"

"Low battery." The voice was slurred and it turned deeper.

The policemen stared, unimpressed as the robot started spouting random nonsense. "Listen kid, why don't we call your parents and get them down here."

While Hiro was trying to deal with Baymax leaning over his head, he finally tuned in upon hearing what the policemen said, "What?" No, that was a terrible idea. His Aunt Cass would freak and if Tadashi found out….

The policemen turned around for a moment to get a form, but Hiro was out with Baymax before he had a chance to get Hiro's name or number.

Getting Baymax home was the hard part, he kept spouting nonsense and he couldn't walk properly. Hiro got a lot of stares on the tram as Baymax kept making false diagnosis', he had even told an old gentlemen congratulations because he was pregnant. Hiro got off the tram with Baymax very hastily after that.

"Okay, if Aunt Cass asks, we were at school all day."

Baymax slurred as he unsteadily walked toward Hiro, "We jumped out a window."

"Shhhhhh!" Hiro hushed. He had never gotten drunk before and if this is what a person acted like under the influence, then he decided that he never wanted to drink.

Baymax whispered as he repeated, "We jumped out a window."

Hiro managed to dodge his Aunt Cass as he claimed to not be hungry and had a long day of studying in the university library. While she was preoccupied with the dishes Hiro rushed Baymax up the stairs.

Hiro got Baymax back to his recharging dock and he flopped unto his bed as he exhaled deeply. He pulled out the petri dish and stared at the microbot.

"This doesn't make any sense." Hiro muttered. The warehouse he had dreamed of was where he found out that some crazy masked guy was mass producing them. He had the dream for a reason. Possible or not, it happened, but it still made no sense to him.

"My scanners are picking up that your body is steadily increasing in cortisol and epinephrine. This suggests that you are stressed. I suggest that you do relaxing activities, such as taking deep breaths or reading a book."

Hiro sat up slightly smiling. Baymax was Baymax again. Hiro then frowned, he couldn't exactly explain his vision or dream or whatever it was to Baymax.

"I don't think that's going to help, buddy." He went to sit in his black chair beside his desk. He stared at the remaining sketch of the warehouse.

Baymax waddled over to Hiro. "You are my patient. I would like to help." He pulled Hiro up and began to hug him.

Hiro didn't object, but he was still confused. "What are you doing?"

"A prolonged embrace can release the hormone, endorphins, which can relieve stress." Baymax patted him on the head. "There, there."

Hiro couldn't help but smile as he gently pulled away. "Thanks Baymax."

Hiro's eyes went back on the sketch and then to his microbot in the petri dish sitting on his bed. Hiro gasped as it finally came to him, the two were connected to the dream and the answer why was right in front of him.

"It wasn't an accident."

Hiro had no doubt in his mind that the 'visions' he had were both trying to get him to find out the truth and they were warnings. "The fire at the showcase wasn't an accident. The masked guy stole my microbots and set the fire to cover his tracks!" The fire was responsible for Callaghan, and because of that Tadashi was so…. "We have to catch that guy."

Hiro snuck Baymax down to the garage whilst his Aunt Cass was busy watching her soap opera.

"But first, you need some upgrades." Hiro knew Tadashi wouldn't approve that he was 'improving' his nurse-bot, but to Hiro it was the only way he could catch the guy. The police were already no hope, and someone had to catch the guy, he couldn't just be left to run around with an army of microbots.

Hiro always either overestimated or underestimated his smarts, but either way the boy was a genius. He kicked around backwards and forwards bouncing from side to side as he multitasked.

Hiro motion-captured karate moves from a fighting clip he found online and began downloading it into a red chip whilst he also made armour for Baymax. Hiro dressed Baymax in the armour, Hiro grinned as he admired the new look of his brother's robot.

Baymax looked down to his whole set of armour. "I have some concerns. This may undermine my non-threatening, huggable design."

Hiro grinned, still admiring Baymax's new look, "That's kind of the idea, buddy. You look sick!"

Baymax took it in a literal sense. "I cannot be sick. I am a robot."

"It's just an expression." Hiro added a mental note to teach Baymax about expressions, but that was for a later time.

Suddenly Hiro heard his computer saying that his download was complete. He pulled out the chip and drew and skull on it. He opened Baymax's access port and froze as he saw the green chip with the clear writing on it, 'TADASHI HAMADA'.

Hiro knew what he was doing, but a voice in the back of his head was barking at him to call Tadashi, but Hiro was convinced that if he did then Tadashi could get into danger. Hiro had already been seen by the masked man, Tadashi hadn't. He didn't see any point dragging his brother into it. As far as he knew Tadashi was nowhere near involved. He remembered during Callaghan's funeral that he wanted to protect Tadashi, whilst he couldn't protect him from sorrow, he could protect him from this.

* * *

The gang were all sitting around dozing. They were all waiting for Tadashi's software to finish downloading.

Wasabi began stretching, "Tell me why we're waiting for this again."

Tadashi pinned up another article of the fire of his board, "After the software is installed, I can use it at any time, but it can be only used once. It gives a two minute opening to look at any and all of their files on the mainframe without being detected. After those two minutes I terminate the bot and it'll be like nothing happened." Tadashi looked to his computer, it was at 78 percent.

Tadashi had been working on the hack-bot for a while. A lot of the coding equations sneak through even the strongest of firewalls came from Hiro's journal that Tadashi had 'borrowed'. Hiro figured out the concept of hacking when he was seven, not that he ever really used it. Tadashi was impressed when he first found out, but he also did his best to steer Hiro away from hacking and toward inventing, which luckily worked.

"What's this?" Fred was going through one of Tadashi's drawers out of sheer boredom. He held up a round, white device.

"It's a tracker." Tadashi just didn't specify what it tracked. It tracked Hiro. Tadashi admitted that he was overprotective, he wouldn't deny that. Tadashi had sewn GPS trackers in each of Hiro's beloved jackets. It was the only way he could keep tabs on his brother, he had managed to save Hiro from bot-fighters many times thanks to the trackers.

"Well whoever it's on is moving around town." Fred was staring down at the tracker.

Tadashi tilted his head as he looked over Fred's shoulder. The small dot was moving across the electronic map. He took it off of Fred, "What?" Tadashi's face dropped.

Suddenly he began to bury through his desk drawers, obviously looking for something. Gogo and Honey Lemon looked toward each other. Honey asked,

"Tadashi, what's going on?"

Tadashi continued to bury through his desk until he found the keys to his moped, "It's almost the middle of the night and he's going across town. I have no idea what he's doing, but it can't be anything good." Even though Tadashi let out an annoyed groan, the gang all knew that he looked more worried than anything. And that's why no one needed to ask who he was talking about.

Tadashi paused the program download, "I'll be back soon." He almost ran out the door if he wasn't stopped by Wasabi.

"Wait, Tadashi. It'll be faster in my car."

* * *

Tadashi was clutching on to the tracker like his life depended on it, his eyes remained glued to the little dot. They were sent on a wild goose chase while Hiro stopped for a while but when they were half way there Hiro went in a completely different direction.

"Wait, wait. I think I saw him!" Tadashi immediately looked out the window as Honey pointed to an alleyway. "I think he's going to the Fransokyo Bay." Honey Lemon finished.

Wasabi reversed the car, "I'm going to have to go around."

* * *

"Always wait one hour after eating before swimming." Baymax stated as he pulled Hiro back from the safety of the ledge. Before Hiro could reply his petri dish went flying out of his hand and into the fog of the bay.

Hiro narrowed his eyes to see the masked man emerging from the fog and darkness in the distance. Hiro latched onto Baymax and the two hid behind a shipping container. Hiro watched as the masked man lifted some sort of metal debris from the water with the help of the microbots. It had a red symbol of a bird. Hiro had seen it before, it was on the map board when he first went to the warehouse.

Hiro stopped watching, what was this masked man doing?

"Your heart rate has increased dramatically."

Hiro immediately ignored the robot, "Shhhh." He knew it had to be done before the masked man figured out what they were there for. "Okay, Baymax, time to use those upgrades." Before Baymax had a chance to get into action a sudden light began shining on the two.

_Great. Now what?_  Hiro used his hand to shield his eyes from what he recognized was a car light. When it turned off he heard the voice of someone that he last expected to see.

"Hiro?" Tadashi practically threw himself out of the car.

"Tadashi?" Hiro then saw that it wasn't just Tadashi who had come, but it was the others as well.

Tadashi started scolding him, "Hiro you know better than to roam around the streets alone after dark! What are you doing out here?"

"Oh you know, I just went for a walk to help with my pubescent mood swings." Hiro eyes widened after he realised what he just said.

Tadashi's worried expression only became more evident. "Pubescent mood swings? What?"

"Wait, is that Baymax?" Honey Lemon pointed behind Hiro. Tadashi looked to the side.

"Hello Tadashi." Baymax greeted his creator. Tadashi stared as he took a moment to process it.

"….Hiro. Why is Baymax here?" Tadashi folded his arms, his worry was shifting to annoyance.

"And why is Baymax wearing carbon fibre underpants." Gogo added as she stared at his armour.

"I also know karate." Baymax told them, Hiro smacked his hand against his forehead.  _Yeah, Baymax just add more fuel to the fire._

"Karate!? What? Hiro, I thought you were past this. I thought you were done with bot fighting. And now you're trying to use Baymax?" It was more the tone of disappoint than of anger.

Hiro shook his head, "What? No, I'm not bot fighting!" The feeling of imminent danger was still dawning over him, "You guys need to get out of here, now!"

Fred stepped between them trying to calm the situation. "We just got here and I think that we should all- HOLY MOTHER OF MEGAZON!"

The shipping container was lifted by the microbots to reveal the masked man. They all gasped at the sight. The only bright side to seeing what they were is that Tadashi was right, someone had stolen Hiro's microbots.

"Am I the only one seeing this?" Fred asked as Honey Lemon quickly snapped a photograph of the masked man. It appeared to anger him as he hurled the shipping container. Wasabi screamed, thinking it was going to crush them, but he soon realised that Baymax stopped it before it could land on them.

"Go!" Hiro yelled, however, the gang needed no encouragement from Hiro to get back to the car. "Baymax, go get him!"

Tadashi grabbed Hiro by the arm and ran. "What are you doing?" Hiro tried to pull away, but Tadashi pushed him into the car. The two squished into the back with Honey Lemon and Fred.

Tadashi immediately countered back, "What am I doing? What are you doing!? Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"

"Baymax can handle that guy."

But as if the universe was laughing at Hiro, Baymax got thrown by the microbots and he landed on the roof of Wasabi's car, creating a large dent. The masked man was getting closer along with the microbots. Wasabi reversed the car and floored it.

"Hiro, explanation. Now!" Gogo demanded. Hiro gave a very brief, but informational explanation.

"He stole my microbots and started the fire, and I don't know who he is!"

"When did this happen?" Tadashi asked, half yelling in Hiro's ear. He wanted to know everything and he wanted to know now.

Hiro ignored Tadashi as he saw the incoming microbots, "Baymax! Palm heel strike!" Baymax did it in time, but the force of the hit turned the car around, Wasabi took it off reverse and set it back to drive and kept going.

Tadashi looked out the window then back to his younger brother, "Hiro, what were you doing even going after that guy!? If we didn't find you, he could've killed you!"

"It's not like I went into this underprepared or alone, I have Baymax!" Hiro snapped back.

"On that note, what did you even do to Baymax? I bring him home for one day and you go and turn him into a weapon!"

_Well maybe if you were actually around I wouldn't have done it._  "Well it's not like I had a choice, would have you preferred that I went into this alone or with Baymax without his upgrades?"

Tadashi stared at Hiro for a second before he replied, "Do you really expect me to answer that? What about neither!"

The brothers kept arguing as Fred looked from the back window to see the masked assailant right on their trail.

"Mask. Black suit. We're dealing with a super villain here, people. Honey, how cool is that? I mean it's scary, obviously, but how cool!"

Honey Lemon wasn't sharing Fred's enthusiasm.

"Why is he trying to kill us?" Wasabi then yelled out of the window, "Hello, why are you trying to kill us?" Of course he got no answer in return from the man, but Fred did answer for him,

"He's a classic villain. We've seen too much."

Honey Lemon tried to keep her optimism, "Let's not jump to conclusions, we don't know that he's trying to kill us."

The masked man threw a car at them, if Wasabi wasn't driving as fast as he was, they would've been hit.

"He's trying to kill us!"

Just a few hours prior they had thought breaking into Krei Tech was dangerous, but in reality that was nothing compared to what they were just experiencing.

"Did you just put your blinkers on?" Gogo couldn't believe it, they were being chased by a man that was trying to kill them and Wasabi was still using his turning signal.

"You have to indicate when you turn! It's the law!" Wasabi defended, he wasn't doing too well in this life or death situation.

Gogo stuck her gum down angrily before she uttered to herself, "That's it." She pulled Wasabi's seat back and took over the wheel and changed the gear.

Tadashi and Hiro were almost thrown forward in their chairs, they were the only ones not paying attention to what was happening. Hiro almost hit his head against the front chair. No one knew what was scarier, the masked man or Gogo's driving.

Tadashi picked up where the two had left off just moments before, "You still haven't answered my question on why you were down there in the first place."

Hiro rolled his eyes ignoring his brother. Hiro began climbing into the front passenger seat. "Stop the car, Baymax and I can handle this gu-ahhh." The side door was ripped off and Hiro began to fall out.

Tadashi's angry pout turned into full-blown panic as he screamed, "HIRO!"

Hiro expected to meet the ground, but all he was doing was staring the road, inches away from his face. Baymax had luckily caught the boy in time. Baymax pulled the boy back into the passenger seat and pulled over the seat belt, buckling Hiro in.

"Seat belts save lives. Buckle up every time." Baymax gave the thumbs up before he sat properly back up on the roof.

Tadashi was sure he had just suffered multiple heart attacks all at once. "Hiro! Are you hurt?" Tadashi threw himself out of the chair and he began scanning Hiro for any injuries. Tadashi felt like he could breathe again as Hiro slowly shook his head.

Gogo tried to lose the masked man with a train, but Hiro saw to his side that he was still on their trail. The car was suddenly engulfed into a sort of microbot vortex. Gogo slammed her foot on the accelerator.

"Baymax, hold on!" Hiro called out, the robot complied as he held unto the car. Everyone braced themselves as the exit was getting smaller. The car burst out in time. Before anyone could celebrate, Gogo slammed her foot on the break, but it was too late as the car flew off the docks and into the water of the bay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: What did you guys think? And the dialogue shouldn't be as exact from the movie in later chapters now that the brothers have 'reunited'. And the Krei Tech scene...All giant doofs. Haha, yes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT: I AM GOING ON A 2 WEEK BREAK!
> 
> A/N: I hoped I could get this story done before I went on my holiday's, but I was being a bit ambitious. I was close though, this story should only have 2-3 more chapters.
> 
> I will return soon! I love you all! Please enjoy this chapter! Happy New Year!

There was only a few moments where everyone took a deep breath before the car sunk further down and the water filled the car.

Hiro struggled with the belt buckle, but he finally managed to pull it off. He then saw Baymax dropping off his armour and everyone grabbed unto him as he floated them all back up to the surface. They all greedily gasped for air as they reached the surface.

Baymax scanned the six of them. "Your injuries require my attention and your body temperatures are low."

Hiro finished catching his breath as he said, "We should get out of here." The masked man was gone, but it didn't mean that he couldn't come back.

Fred suddenly smirked, "I know a place."

* * *

Everyone tried to keep themselves warm as they followed Fred. Tadashi trailed behind with Baymax, but despite not being near each other Hiro could feel Tadashi's worried gaze burning in the back of his head. Tadashi didn't say anything but his concern was more than clear. Tadashi decided that he wasn't going to say anything until they were somewhere safe. Honey Lemon finally looked around there surroundings and asked,

"Where are we?"

Fred didn't reply as he finally turned in the direction of not a house but a mansion.

Tadashi called out to him, "Fred, where are you going?" The others shared Tadashi's confusion.

Fred paused and stared for a moment before he realised, "Ohhhh! Welcome to mi casa, that's French for 'front door'."

Honey Lemon frowned at Fred's antics, "It's really not."

Gogo was cold and now she was cold and mad, "Listen nitwit, a lunatic in a mask just tried to kill us. I'm not in the mood for-"

The door was suddenly opened by a butler as he greeted Fred, "Welcome home, Master Fredrick."

"Heathcliff, my man! C'mon guys, we'll be safe in here." They all stared gobsmacked. Fred lived in a mansion and he even had a butler? The day just got stranger by the minute.

"Give me some." Fred fist bumped the butler. Everyone began to walk in one by one. Tadashi let Baymax walk infront of him. Baymax paused at the butler still holding up his fist. Tadashi let his jaw drop a little when he saw what Baymax did next.

Baymax bumped fist then wiggled his fingers while making the sound, "Bah-a-la-la-la."

Tadashi couldn't help but smile, of course Hiro would've taught a healthcare robot how to fist bump. The smile faded as he looked back to Hiro. What had he been doing at the docks in the first place? Hiro never answered the question.

They all stared around in awe as they followed Fred. "This is your house?" Honey Lemon was still in a daze of awe.

"I thought you lived under a bridge." Gogo stated as she looked around in disbelief.

Fred just shrugged, "Nah, well, technically it belongs to my parents. They're out on va-kay on the family island. We should all go sometime." Fred clapped his hands and the door to his room opened.

Gogo rolled her eyes, "You have got to be kidding me." The room had odd things everywhere. Everyone couldn't help but stare.

Wasabi was slightly scared and mortified of a painting of a buff Fred with wings while riding a white tiger. "If I wasn't just attacked by a guy in a kabuki mask, I think this would be the weirdest thing that's happened today."

Hiro had already slipped away from the others as he made his way to a desk with a pen and paper. He began to sketch the symbol he had seen on the debris that the masked man had been carrying.

Hiro didn't even realise it, but he was still slightly shivering. It didn't go unnoticed by Tadashi. He walked over, putting a hand on Hiro's shoulder about to say something, but his hand quickly retracted back in surprise,

"Hiro, you're freezing." Tadashi didn't expect Hiro to be that cold.

Hiro ignored the statement as he kept drawing the symbol from memory. Baymax, hearing what Tadashi had said, slumped over Hiro and he activated his heating feature. The others started leaning on Baymax.

"Good robot." Gogo murmured as she enjoyed the warmth.

Tadashi leaned somewhat on Baymax, he was still a little cold, but he was more concerned with what Hiro was doing. He tilted his head in confusion as he watched Hiro draw.

Hiro stared at the finished product before holding it up so the others could see, "Does this symbol mean anything to you guys?"

"Yes!" Fred nodded, throwing his pointing finger toward the drawing, "It's a bird!"

Hiro shook his head as he stood back up, "No, the guy in the mask was carrying around something with this symbol on it."

Baymax deactivated his heating feature. "Apprehending the masked man will help Hiro with his increased stress levels."

Tadashi raised his eyebrows. "Increased stress levels?"

His question was ignored when Gogo continued, "Apprehend him? We were lucky get away from him, let alone catch the guy."

"Well at least we know that Tadashi's theory was right." Honey Lemon added, still trying to keep her positive outlook.

Hiro narrowed his eyes at all of them confused at what Honey Lemon had just said, "Tadashi's theory? What theory?"

The cat was out of the bag now. Gogo stared Tadashi down. Tadashi knew that there was no way out of it, but he wanted to tell Hiro anyway, he just hoped that he could've had better timing. Tadashi sighed as he began to explain, "Hiro, there's something I've been keeping from you."

Tadashi let it all come out into the open. Tadashi explained how he tested and made simulations, and he explained how he figured out the fire was accidental, but intentional. Hiro remained silent and his face was unreadable as he listened.

"The only motive I could figure out was to cover the tracks of something stolen. And the only one that anyone had any real interest in was your microbots."

Hiro finally spoke as he glared at his older brother. "You knew all this time and you didn't tell me?"

"I didn't want to put you into danger." Tadashi knew that it was ironic, but it was the truth.

Hiro mockingly let out a huff of humourless laughter, "And look where that's got us. Oh yeah, it's got us Wasabi's car on the bottom of San Fransokyo Bay…..No offence, Wasabi."

"None taken."

Honestly, Hiro understood why Tadashi did it, he really did. He knew his brother better than anyone, but it still bothered him that Tadashi would keep something this large from him.

"Tadashi, I could've helped and you know it. You didn't need to keep this from me." Hiro also wanted to add to the fact that everything Tadashi told him was something he already figured it in one day when it took Tadashi weeks, but he didn't want to point out the obvious.

Tadashi nodded, "I know. I was wrong to do that, but you have to understand that I also felt that this was something I needed to do alone, I didn't want to get anyone involved. "

"And yet everyone else knew about it before I did."

"The others only found out earlier today." Tadashi defended.

The gang all gave a small nod toward Hiro to say that Tadashi was telling the truth. It wasn't that Tadashi lied to Hiro, he just kept secrets that he shouldn't have. Hiro decided to change the subject,

"Either way I'm involved now anyway if you like it or not."

Tadashi forced a lop-sided smile before he let out a deep exhale. "Speaking of that, I've done my explanation. Now it's your turn."

"Huh?"

"How did you find out about the masked man?"

Hiro saw this one coming. Hiro knew he had to leave out the 'vision' information. That could be for another time, they had all endured a strange day, Hiro didn't want to top it off to say he apparently saw the future. "Well I got a papercut and that's when Baymax activated." He held up his finger with a band-aid wrapped around it.

Tadashi had only brought Baymax home a couple of days prior because he needed more room in his lab, he had never thought that Hiro would accidently activate him in that time.

Hiro explained what happened once he had found the microbot in his jacket. He intentionally let out a few details like himself and Baymax almost getting hit by multiple cars as they ran in traffic. Hiro explained the warehouse and when he saw machinery creating more of his microbots.

"That's when the masked guy showed up."

Baymax finally brought himself into the conversation. "The encounter with the masked man only increased Hiro's levels of stress, especially when were under attack and as we escaped by jumping out of a window." Hiro slammed his hand against his forehead for a second time that night.

"You mean you were attacked by him before!? And you jumped out of a window!?" Tadashi had always been a calm guy, but the thought of Hiro getting hurt or thrown into danger caused him to flip.

Hiro threw his hands up in defence. "Yes, and I was fine. He didn't catch us in time and Baymax caught me when we fell out of the window, but that's beside the point."

Tadashi stared at Hiro for a few silent seconds before he muttered, "I need to sit down." He sat on the couch beside Wasabi and Honey Lemon, exhaling deeply to try to calm his raging protectiveness as he also tried to gather himself back. Tadashi would've attempted to lecture him but he was stopped by his own train of thought,  _'You have no right to yell at him, if you had just told him at the very beginning what you were up to then it wouldn't have happened.'_

Hiro finished explaining that after trying and failing to explain it to the police, he figured out that the fire had to be a cover for someone to steal his microbots. He then went to finish off by saying how he gave Baymax upgrades before he ended up at the docks.

Hiro bit his lip, "Are you mad?" He waited for a lecture about messing around with Baymax's programing, but Tadashi was surprisingly calm as he shook his head at Hiro's question,

"While I don't necessarily agree that you made my nursebot learn karate, if I had told you everything before, you wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place."  _I was trying to protect you, but I just ended up throwing you further into danger._  "Are you mad?"

Hiro replied as honestly as he could, "I'm not sure." Hiro was mad, but he also wasn't at the same time. He didn't know how he felt about it, but all he knew what was done was done, there was nothing more that could've been said. They both had been harbouring secrets, but Hiro knew that the real problem at hand was the masked man.

Seeing that they had all the explanations out the way, Gogo was getting straight to the point, "So, what now? We just let that guy loose on the city?"

"It's easy, we just expose him." Fred smiled, he had the very same smile before they broke into Krei Tech.

Hiro eyes widened, "Wait, you know who he is?"

Fred grabbed a nearby remote and turned on his flat screen television. A familiar face was on the screen as Fred pointed, "Alistair Krei."

Hiro stared confused at the screen. "What?"

"He's the only suspect that has a clear motive. He wanted your microbots and his company is known for being dishonest." Tadashi answered. "We've been on to it. Earlier we even got into Krei Tech and placed a bug in there system."

Hiro was clearly impressed, "A bug in Krei Tech's systems? A company which is known to have to tightest security in all of San Fransokyo? How did you even pull it off?" The others shifted uncomfortably in their seats on the couch. They did pull it off, but the memory of it was embarrassing for everyone, except Fred, he loved it. Tadashi felt slightly ashamed, but he still convinced himself that it was for good reason.

Tadashi coughed to clear his throat, replying, "That's classified." Hiro rolled his eyes at Tadashi's attempt to sound cool. "All we need to do expose Krei as the masked man and everything should fall into place from there."

"That's if it is Krei." Hiro interjected. Hiro knew that it made sense for it to be Alistair Krei, but something told him that it wasn't. He didn't know why, but it was like his thoughts weren't his own as it told him that it wasn't Krei. He decided to trust it. "We can't just assume he's Krei, it could honestly be anyone that was at the showcase, besides, Krei is way too high profile."

Honey Lemon fidgeted in her seat, "Then who was that guy in the mask?"

Hiro shrugged in frustration, "I don't know, we don't know anything about him. All we do know is that he wears a mask and he stole my-"

Baymax interrupted Hiro in midsentence. "His blood type is AB-. His cholesterol levels are-"

Tadashi was the first to ask, "Wait Baymax, you scanned him?"

Baymax nodded, "Yes, you programed me to assess everyone's healthcare needs."

"We can use the data from the scan to find him!" Tadashi never intended for Baymax's programing to be used in that way, but he had to catch the guy, for Callaghan.

"So you're gonna scan everyone in San Fransokyo, and that might take, oh, I don't know. Forever." The sarcasm in Gogo's voice was just dripping from every word.

"It's not impossible though, we just need to look for a new angle." Tadashi had his want for justice for Callaghan renewed. He was completely determined to catch that masked man.

Hiro was hit by an idea as he happened to glance at one of Fred's action figures. He scooped up the figurine, "We could scan the whole city at once."

Tadashi smiled as he understood where Hiro was going with it, "By upgrading Baymax's sensors."

Hiro began to nod but he stopped as he looked up to the superhero figurines, he had another idea that solved the problem of how they could actually catch the guy. "Actually if we're going to catch this guy, we're going to have to upgrade all of you."

"Upgrade who now?" Wasabi raised his eyebrows.

Hiro began to walk around them as he had thousands of simultaneous thoughts and ideas beginning to race across his mind.

Fred started grinning as he practically started jumping from his seat as he sang, "I like where this is heading."

It was safe to say that Wasabi wasn't as excited as Fred, "We can't go up against him, we're nerds."

Tadashi smirked with a new found cockiness, "Hey, we're the very same nerds that got a bug into Krei Tech undetected. That definitely means something."

Gogo scoffed, "And look how well that ended." Her expression only slightly softened, "There's only so much we can do."

Honey Lemon agreed, adding, "We'd love to help, but we're just…us."

Hiro turned around to stare at the costumes Fred had on display, it was clear to all of them what Hiro had in mind, "No, you can be way more."

"What do you think, Tadashi?" Wasabi asked, still in disbelief at the seemingly impossible idea.

Hiro waited for his idea to be undoubtedly shot down by Tadashi, but the response he got was the complete opposite,

"I think it's a great idea."

Hiro gaped at Tadashi, was he actually siding with him? "You do know that this means the possibility of imminent danger, right?"

Tadashi nodded, "I know, and I still agree." Hiro just blinked in response. Tadashi's expression sobered, continuing, "If we don't catch this guy, no one else will."

The three all exchanged looks. Fred was already super hyped up and excited, he needed no convincing. They all gave each other the same look. Gogo let out a large exhale as she voiced the final verdict,

"Well we're not going to let the two of you run around the streets alone. We're in."

Fred started jumping around excitedly, "Can you feel it? This is where our origin story begins. We're going to be super heroes!"

~l

The next morning the gang came bright and early for the game plan. They all met up in Hiro and Tadashi's lab that was originally their Aunt Cass' garage.

"Arm's up." Hiro scanned all five of them and got the right modelling. He saved the scan details before he showed a visual display on the touch screen on the kabuki mask and neurocranial transmitter, "The neurotransmitter must be in his mask. Get the mask and he can't control the bots. Game over."

The whole day was Hiro collaborating with the others. Everyone had their own part to play with their own 'powers'. Hiro worked with all of them to sort out what they could use. Honey Lemon, Gogo, and Wasabi's were obvious and easy enough to work around with, but Fred was a different story.

"Can we work with something like this?" Fred passed over a comic with a giant lizard man. "He can also become fifty feet tall, I mean, just imagine that. It would be completely and insanely awesome."

Tadashi and Hiro instantly looked to each other. Tadashi wondered if they were thinking about the same thing, "So you're thinking about the one with the-"

Hiro had already begun modelling a 3D diagram. "Yep."

Tadashi peeked over his shoulder, "And the added-"

"Yep."

"Nice." The two nodded at each other before they went back to work. The other's stood there, confused at what they had just witnessed. The Hamada brothers were definitely something different.

~l

During that day, Tadashi felt like he was contributing nothing, no matter how much he tried to help, Hiro was still the brains of the entire operation. A lot of the time he was just watching Hiro do his own thing, he was overwhelmed with both pride and awe. When Hiro applied his genius to a task, he proved that he could make anything possible. What would normally take someone months or even years, Hiro managed to accomplish it in one day.

Hiro had finished the blue prints for their suit and weapon designs by the end of that first day. He had even done a little of his own research on each of their specialities so he knew a rough outline of what he was doing, not that Hiro would admit it to anyone.

Hiro refused to show Tadashi the suit designs for him, he claimed that he wanted to surprise him. Tadashi decided to go with it to humour his younger brother. It had Tadashi both concerned and intrigued. And it took a lot of convincing and puppy dog eyes for Hiro to convince Tadashi to let him to use Baymax. Tadashi gave in pretty quickly, only under the condition that Hiro had to run the ideas of the upgrades by him first.

Tadashi began acting like himself again, but he was still different. He was still obsessed with finding the masked man, even if he didn't say anything aloud, Hiro could tell. And it made Hiro want to catch the guy nearly as much as Tadashi did, but it wasn't just because that the masked man had stolen his microbots and what damage he could do with them. His reason was more selfish. He wanted Tadashi to be himself again, and for that to happen he knew that Tadashi needed to get justice for something he obviously felt guilty about, Callaghan's death.

~l

In those next few days everything was in the process of being created and were being tested. Fred had volunteered his parents' mansion for them to test their new abilities.

Honey Lemon's was done first. Honey Lemon was equipped with a special purse, containing a miniature chemical lab inside, and a touch screen with a programming of the periodic table that contained whatever chemical she typed in to be injected in small spheres. With her smarts of chemistry she knew what chemical reactions caused what. It was both a deadly and stylish blend. She adored it.

Fred volunteered Heathcliff to be the 'masked man' so they could all test out their new gear. Heathcliff looked unfazed by the new development of their superhero upgrades. The gang had concluded that it was because he was the family butler to Fred. That fact alone was enough to answer their question.

Gogo initially disliked the fact that Hiro tossed away the idea of her bike, but was later impressed that her electromagnetic discs were made even faster by creating them into a kind of rollerblade. She also had two disks on each arm for a boomerang type weapon.

Wasabi had his own laser induced plasma blades, it was similar to his original creation but it was more highly concentrated. He felt like in it he was invincible.

Fred got his very own monster suit where he could super jump and breathe fire. He tried chasing Hiro down for what seemed like hours trying to give him a hug for giving him such a brilliant super suit.

After finishing up with Fred, Hiro finally revealed to Tadashi his suit. It was thicker than the others, it was quite bulky. The suit and helmet were as dark as obsidian.

"So are you going to tell me what it does now?"

Hiro smirked, "I'll meet you in the garden. In the meantime, suit up." Hiro skipped out leaving Tadashi to try on his new suit.

While the others were sitting around, marvelling at their new gear, Tadashi made his appearance in his new suit.

Fred's grin wasn't seen because of his suit, but it was more than evident as he said, "Tadashi, you look so cool! What's your super power?"

Tadashi sighed, "I honestly still don't know."

Gogo threw her disc forward, "He still hasn't told you?" She caught the disc as it came back. She really did like her new electromagnetic discs.

"Where is Hiro anyway?" Wasabi asked.

"He said something about meeting him up in the garden." Suddenly they all heard a loud crackling like sound coming from the garden.

Tadashi was followed by the others as they all ran toward the garden. They saw Hiro, now in his purple and red armour, dusting himself off from leftover dust from a large stone statue that had been knocked over.

Tadashi stared at the fallen statue, "What did you do?" He narrowed his eyes to see some sort of armoured fist lying near the statue.

Hiro had a grin plastered on his face that wasn't moving anytime soon, "It wasn't me, it was one of Baymax's upgrades. May I present you, Baymax 2.0."

The armoured fist suddenly shot back to its owner, it revealed Baymax in magnificent red and purple armour. Baymax stood tall and heroically.

Fred gasped in awe, "He's glorious."

Tadashi sighed and smiled at the memory of the previous night. Himself and Hiro tried fitting on the armour unto Baymax, it ended up all flying off almost hitting the two. He and Hiro just laughed it off and sized it bigger.

"Hello." Baymax greeted before he quickly got distracted by a butterfly. Tadashi chuckled. Baymax was most certainly still himself despite all the upgrades he had let Hiro add. Hiro quickly got his attention back.

Hiro grinned at his older brother, "Okay, Tadashi, you're up."

"What?"

"Pick the statue with only one hand." Hiro's smirk said it all.

Tadashi didn't want to believe it but he did when he picked the statue one-handed with ease, "It feels like it weighs nothing." Tadashi stated as he placed the statue back up.

"No way! A Hercules suit!" Fred was ecstatic. "This makes Freddie very happy!"

"Enhanced super strength, the suit amplifies your regular strength by any amount that is needed for the object." Hiro explained. "Of course there's a limit, but I doubt you'll carry over five tons around with you for very long anyway, so surprise!" Hiro's smile almost vanished as he was about to mention that his suit was fire resistant, it had a heavy sense of irony to Hiro since he had a dream of Tadashi dying in a fire. Hiro was drawn out of those thoughts as Tadashi spoke.

"Hiro this is amazing, all of it." Tadashi praised.

"And that's not all." Hiro added as the memory of the dream retreated back to its dormancy in the back of his mind, "Baymax, wings."

They all watched as Hiro connected his shoe and hand magnets on the back of the robot. "Thrusters." Hiro commanded. Baymax began to hover as the thrusters opened on the bottom of his feet.

Baymax turned his head toward Hiro, "I fail to see how flying makes me a better healthcare companion."

"I fail to see, how you fail to see, that it's awesome! Full thrusters!" Everyone expected for them to shoot up into the sky, but they ended up ducking out of the uncoordinated way. The next thing that any of them knew Baymax and Hiro were gradually beginning to go into the direction of the city.

"Hiro, where are you going!?"

It had to be a miracle that Hiro heard him as he and Baymax flew further away, "Baymax and I need to go on this test run, we'll be back soo-ahhh!" Baymax's thrusters fluctuated to its full blast and the two were gone.

Tadashi dragged his hand across his face before letting out a deep sigh. "I guess we just have to wait then."

"Shouldn't we follow and try to help or something?" Wasabi asked. Not that they could do much to help, but he thought it was worth suggesting.

Tadashi suddenly had a smile on his face, shaking his head, "Nah, they've got this."

Gogo decided to point out the obvious. "You're taking this awfully well. Just the other day you freaked when he almost fell out of a car and now you're cool with him just flying around the city, possibly hitting buildings or billboards?"

Tadashi visibly tensed at the thought, but he began to relax as he answered, "He should be fine. He has Baymax with him, and if I trust anyone to keep Hiro safe, it's Baymax." And honestly, it was also because Tadashi had discovered something in those past few days.

Tadashi didn't know how to explain it. Hiro had grown such an attachment to Baymax, but what baffled him was that Baymax was showing attachment to Hiro as well. Baymax was beginning to show more of a personality and a caring side that seemed to become more human by each passing day. Hiro's influence on Baymax was something he didn't expect, but it was a pleasant surprise and discovery about his robotics project. Tadashi knew that Baymax wouldn't let anything bad happen to Hiro, and even despite the sudden bond between the two, he still knew that Baymax would take care of Hiro. Tadashi did build Baymax after all.

* * *

Hiro called it luck. There was no other explanation of how they survived in that first minute of failing to fly, but it soon became as amazing as he hoped it would be as the two finally managed to sync up.

Hiro cheered as they flew over the San Fransokyo Bridge once again. Hiro ended up sitting on top of a large metal blimp with Baymax, wanting to take in the scenery before they had to head back. Hiro unconsciously was moving his feet in a waving motion, Baymax started to mirror the movement. The first flight was finally sinking in.

"That was…..that was…" Hiro couldn't find the right word.

"Sick." Hiro stared a Baymax, did he really just say that? "It's just an expression."

Hiro laughed, "That's right, buddy." He really did enjoy Baymax's company. "I'm never taking the bus again." Hiro muttered as he stared off at the sunset. Hiro stood back up and stretched, "Well, we better head back."

Baymax suddenly straightened up, "Your brain waves are beginning to fluctuate on a worrisome level."

Before Hiro could respond, he felt like his head was splitting like a coconut. Images flashed all around, it was going too quick for him to see anything straight. Whenever he got close to seeing it, it all went out of focus and distant like someone was pulling him back. Hiro couldn't see anything anymore but he was overwhelmed by the sudden pounding of powerful emotions.

Hurt. Sadness. But most of all, anger. He had never felt so angry, he felt like he was drowning in it. The feelings vanished as he felt like his brain was being pushed down by a powerful pressure. Then suddenly in an instant, the pain was gone and he was drawn back into reality.

"Falling from this height will lead to a certain death."

Hiro was pulled back from the edge by Baymax. He had almost tumbled off the blimp in the confusion. Hiro felt weak in his legs and almost collapsed if it weren't for Baymax helping to support him up.

"Hiro, I will scan you for injuries. Scan complete. Your brain activity is returning to normal and your stress levels have heavily increased. While I sense no physical injuries, your body is in a state of fatigue which is unusual considering you were not doing any physically strenuous activities prior, perhaps it has something to do with your previous brain wave fluctuations."

Hiro wanted to scream. He didn't know what was happening to him and from the sound of it, he was either going crazy or it was something that even Baymax couldn't pick up. And now they were happening when he was awake? It didn't go unnoticed to Hiro that while it felt like the other two 'visions', but the one he just had was different, like someone had been holding it back. It was as if someone had pulled him away and shut the open door he happened to take a peek in. Hiro needed answers.

Hiro pulled himself away from Baymax's supporting arms. "I'm alright, I'm just tired and almost slipped." Hiro forced a fake laugh as he lied. He was just lucky that Baymax thought he was being truthful.

"I encourage that you get more rest and exercise more caution in the future."

All Hiro knew is that there was no doubt that the masked man was connected to these 'visions', so Hiro compromised that if they found him, he could find his answers. Hiro nodded to Baymax as he took a deep breath, "Let's head back."

Baymax partly helped Hiro unto his back. Hiro felt weak, but he slowly felt his strength returning. "And Baymax, let's just keep this between us, okay?"

* * *

When Hiro and Baymax returned, everyone was having a nice chat in the mansion. They had gotten out of their suits and were waiting on their return.

Tadashi was the first to see Hiro and Baymax landing from out of the window, he raced back in the garden to greet the two, "How was it?"

Hiro threw on a smile. "It was incredible." Hiro began to climb off of Baymax, "We flew all over San Fransokyo and-" Hiro's legs almost gave way if Tadashi wasn't there to help steady him. Hiro quickly stood back on his own as he lightly chuckled before Tadashi could ask the inevitable 'are you okay', "I'm just a little overwhelmed from the day. I'm okay."

Tadashi accepted it as a good enough answer to believe, "Well I'm not surprised after all the work you've been doing with that big brain of yours."

"Hiro! How was the test run?" Honey Lemon asked as the others approached them.

"We've worked out the kinks." Hiro gave a small smile. It was his way of saying that it was a struggle to begin with but it ended in success.

Fred then suddenly noticed something that no one would've expected him to notice. "Are you feeling okay little dude? You don't look so hot."

That's when Tadashi got a good look at Hiro's face, had he always been that pale?

Hiro smiled, "I feel fine." It wasn't a complete lie, he did feel alright, just more worn down. "All we have to do now is finishing upgrading the sensor on Baymax and we'll be set. It'll only take about twenty minutes."

"That means that can wait until tomorrow. We've all had a long day." They knew that Tadashi wanted to catch the guy as soon as possible, but it was obvious that Hiro was always the exception. No one objected to it.

* * *

As soon as Baymax and Hiro were out of their armour they returned home with Tadashi. Hiro felt exhausted. When he dreamt of the warehouse he awoke to feel a little weak in his knees, but this time around it was far more intense. And what confused him more was that the 'vision' he just had wasn't as clear as the others, it was like he wasn't meant to see it. Hiro knew he would have to tell Tadashi, and he wanted to, but he just didn't know how to say it.

Tadashi had to steer Hiro away from the garage's direction. "We can get up early and finish it, c'mon."

They were up the stairs in their room when Baymax waddled over to his charging station, and Tadashi said, "You know, if flying is going to make you look this pale every time, then I don't think you should take it a little easier."

Hiro kicked off his shoes and threw himself on his bed, "It wasn't because of the flying."

Tadashi frowned, "Right, so do you feel sick or-" He was cut off by the voice of their Aunt Cass coming from down the stairs.

"Tadashi, can you help me for a second?" He reluctantly dropped the conversation went to assist his Aunt. She needed a bowl from one of the higher shelves that she was too short to reach. He passed her the bowl,

"Thanks, oh! And dinner's almost ready, do you mind telling your brother?"

Tadashi nodded and was back up the stairs, "Hey Aunt Cass said that dinner's almost….Hiro?"

Hiro was under the covers and was out like a light. In all honesty, Tadashi was concerned. Hiro was acting strange. Tadashi just hoped that rest would do Hiro some good. Tadashi desperately wanted to catch the masked man to get justice for Callaghan's death, but he knew he could wait one more day, not for his sake, but for Hiro's.

Tadashi looked to Baymax charging and muttered to himself, "Don't worry, professor. We'll catch your killer."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay guys, once again, I won't be back until over 2 weeks! I'm so sorry for the long gap, but I won't have access or the time. Sorry for the inconvenience guys, but I will be back because I love this story and I love you readers.
> 
> And since I'm gone for a while I'll give you guys a little hint/spoiler: Hiro isn't psychic.
> 
> I bet you're confused. *evil laughter* Oh and the brothers may be getting along now, but just wait until the next chapter. *more evil laughter*
> 
> Next time on DCoE….
> 
> There had to be no doubt. The visions hadn't been wrong before, this would have to be no exception. The masked man was Robert Callaghan.
> 
> See you guys soon! Did you enjoy the chapter? Comment below, let me know! ;)


	5. Chapter 5

_“The guy in the mask is”- He was cut off, everything changed._

_It was all a blur around him, everything was disoriented. All he could make out was the team about to be crushed by a large piece of debris by the masked man. Hiro leapt unto Baymax and swooped in on time. There was only one objective, and that was to remove the mask._

_It suddenly went dark, and Hiro was drawn back to his reality._

Hiro awoke with a gasp before he groaned. Surely that couldn’t have been another ‘vision’. Nothing happened, it was too vague.

In an attempt to distract himself he eyed the nearest clock, it was six in the morning. When had he gone to sleep in the first place? Hiro had to take a moment to remember. After he and Tadashi returned home, everything was a bit of a blur, he remembered feeling drained and sluggish, but that was all. Hiro felt a pit grow in his stomach. What had that vision done to him and did he really just see something new? He sat up properly and he knew that he felt nothing like he did the previous night. He turned his head to see Tadashi sprawled out on his bed still fast asleep.

Hiro needed to clear his head, there was still so much that needed to be done. He began to climb out of bed when Baymax suddenly reinflated. Hiro stared as Baymax suddenly said, “Hiro, my scanners are picking up that you are feeling distr-”

Hiro pulled Baymax out of the room and quietly snuck out of the room.

“Baymax, not now, and people are still trying to sleep. Would it kill you to be quiet?” Hiro realised what he said and raised his hand before Baymax could reply, “That is also an expression. It means I am asking for you to be quiet.”

Baymax responded with a few blinks. Hiro groaned with a mix of a sigh, “C’mon. We should finish your scanner.”

He pulled Baymax down the second pair of stairs and made his way to the garage without waking either Tadashi or Aunt Cass.

 

Hiro had the scanner up and running in under an hour, it was one of the perks of being a fourteen year old genius with all the correct materials. All he needed to do was to activate in and place it on Baymax’s head.

“Ok, buddy. Now we all need to do it is….” Hiro muttered as he started to walk toward him but he froze in thought.He felt a kind of reluctance and he couldn’t place why. It was an impending feeling of a calamity that was bound to happen, but as to what it was, he didn’t know.

 It made him think of everything that was happening. It was all a mess, the random dreams that came true, Callaghan’s death, the masked man, everything.  It was like it was all set into motioned because of a higher force, not that Hiro believed in that kind of stuff, but with that thought in mind, Hiro was struck by an idea that stained itself unto his brain. It was purely on a hunch and it was utter madness in Hiro’s opinion, but Hiro knew it was at least worth a try. He placed the helmet back onto the table.

* * *

Tadashi shot up from a dream that instantly faded from his conscious mind. The only thing that remained was the feeling of heat crawling up his skin and the sight of ash raining down in silence. He rubbed his eyes and yawned as he looked at his watch. Tadashi instantly jumped out of his bed and rummaged around for his hat and shoes. He thought he had over slept, it was only seven in the morning, but to him it was late. In the midst of his rush, that is when he realised that Hiro wasn’t in his bed and Baymax wasn’t on his charging dock. He almost fell forwards as he looked around.

“Hiro? Baymax?”

Tadashi steadied himself on Hiro’s work desk to pull on his shoe. His hand slipped on a loose paper. He glanced down for a moment and took a moment to actually look at it. It was a drawing of a building and it was extremely detailed. He wondered to himself as to why Hiro would draw such a thing, but he brushed it off and pulled on his last shoe.

Tadashi made his way down the stairs. He had one guess at where Hiro would be, and that was the garage.

“Hello Tadashi.” Baymax greeted him as Tadashi strolled toward him.

“Morning Baymax.” He looked behind Baymax to see Hiro placing Baymax’s helmet down onto a desk. “Hiro?”

He briefly jumped at the surprise of hearing Tadashi’s voice. Hiro didn’t realise that he had walked in.

“Oh, hi.”  Hiro replied, but sounded as if his mind were somewhere else.

Tadashi raised his eyebrows at Hiro, but quickly shook it off as he eyed the helmet, “Did you finish the scanner?”

Hiro found himself nodding. “Yeah it’s done.” He murmured. Tadashi reached toward the helmet.

“Great, so now we need to do is-”

“Wait!” Hiro now looked alert. Tadashi was almost shocked at how quickly Hiro blocked his path to the helmet. Hiro noticed how he said it then nervously laughed, “I mean, it’s finished, but it…” Hiro knew he wanted to see it through, and for that he needed Tadashi away even if it was just for a little while. Hiro came up with the first excuse that came to mind, “…needs a capacitor. Yeah, it needs a new capacitor. The other one was fried so I need a stronger one.”

Tadashi blinked. “Is the rest of the circuitry alright?”

Hiro mentally sighed in relief, Tadashi luckily fell for the act. “It should be, but I won’t be sure until we replace the capacitor. I have the kind capacitors we need back at my lab at school. You mind getting them for me?”

Tadashi nodded, “Yeah, no problem. I’ll be back soon.” Tadashi gave Hiro a short pat on the shoulder and walked out ready to get on his moped when he sent a group text to the others that the scanner would be done soon.

Hiro let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding.

“My scanners indicate that nothing is electronically wrong with the scanner within the helmet.” Baymax luckily waited until after Tadashi was gone to inspect the helmet after hearing what Hiro had said.

“I know, I just needed to get rid of Tadashi for a while, there’s something I need to do.”

Baymax tilted his head, human interactions were still so alien to him.

“Baymax, what about you go back to a charging dock for a bit? I’ll wake you when everything’s over.” Hiro in all honesty wanted Baymax to be there, but he also didn’t want him to witness what he was planning on doing next. There was an extra dock that Tadashi had crafted in the garage he soon made another charging dock after Hiro explained what happened when Baymax had a low battery.

“I cannot deactivate until you say that you are satisfied with your care.”

Hiro then felt it again, a reluctance that he knew wasn’t his and yet he still felt it with crawling around his heart and mind. The next words he said made him feel like it would be the last thing he would ever say to Baymax, as if Baymax would deactivate permanently. Hiro felt as if his own voice was unfamiliar as he replied, “I am satisfied with my care.”

Baymax blinked then made his way unto the spare charging dock in the garage. Hiro watched as Baymax deflated and went to his ‘sleep mode’.

Hiro nodded to himself as he looked around and called out to the open air, not exactly sure what he was doing, “Alright, well, I’m alone so I thought we could talk.”

* * *

Tadashi had just arrived to SFIT when he realised he had never really been Hiro’s lab. He pushed open the door to Hiro’s lab and looked around for the capacitors.

“Where are they?” Tadashi muttered to himself.

Hiro’s lab wasn’t a mess like their room. It did have papers of ideas scattered all across his desk, but other than that everything was organised and clean. Tadashi immediately came up with his own theory that Wasabi must have been constantly lecturing Hiro about clean and organised work spaces. He looked around and smiled, Hiro was settling into it better than he thought and no doubt that their friends were giving him helpful tips. Tadashi’s smiled morphed into a frown, and where was he in all of it? But then he remembered why and he shook his head, it was for a good reason, he meant it with good intentions. And if his mentor deserved anything it was justice for his demise.

Tadashi sped up his search and started to raid through Hiro’s desk drawers. He instantly stopped as he accidently shook the desk and heard something fall over. His head perked over the desk and he saw it was a frame that had fallen over, a frame he didn’t realise was there. Tadashi picked up the frame to see a younger version of his brother and himself looking like they were giants hanging off of the SFIT building when it was the first proper technology showcase that they got to see. He hadn’t seen the picture in years.

Tadashi smiled at the memory of it when they first took it. He distinctly remembered that their Aunt had insisted that they take the picture like ‘King Kong’ as she put it. It took about five minutes to get it right. It didn’t take him long to realise Hiro really wanted was that time and excitement back like that day. It was the dream that they were going to attend college together and that was really it. And it wasn’t an impossible dream, it was quite simple, but it was because how he was acting why it hadn’t come true.

He looked past the open door to see the door to his own lab, he had rationalized with himself that he kept his research to protect Hiro, but it wasn’t until that moment that it genuinely hit him that he and Hiro might have been only a few feet away, but in all truth they had never been so far away from each other.

In that moment he silently vowed to himself for things to go back to how it should be, but he believed that for the time being he was responsible for getting justice for Callaghan. He couldn’t save him, but at least he could make it that his death wouldn’t be in vain.

And with that thought in mind, he noticed a box under Hiro’s desk. It was the capacitors. He grabbed the box and passed his lab. He paused for a moment. The download would be still sitting there waiting to be used. He then walked on. If the team and scanner didn’t work at least they would have a backup. But little did Tadashi know that it would still have a crucial part still to play.

* * *

“I know you’re watching.”

Hiro felt stupid and foolish to be talking at thin air, but an idea had struck his mind. The first dream he had was intentional like it wanted to be seen. The second vision was more reluctant, and the most recent two was completely reluctant as if it was a slip up. The only thing that he could think was that someone was showing it both intentionally and accidently. Of course it was impossible to have that ability, but so was seeing something that was going to happen and managing to stop it.

“I know there’s something else you want me to see, but you’re trying to hold it back. Please, whatever problem you have with it, just show me.” Hiro disliked how desperate he sounded, but it was only because that he was.

He knew that whatever it was that it was going to be trouble, and he decided that by not seeing it was worse than if he were to see it.

“Please, it’s not for my sake, but for my brother’s.” Hiro waited for a kind of response. It was complete silence.  “I knew it.” Hiro sighed, maybe he was just going crazy.

A piercing pain slammed into Hiro, he instinctively tried to fight against the pain, supporting himself on the nearest desk. He fell to the ground knocking over the papers and pencils bringing them down with him.

* * *

_The team was down and the masked man was about to finish the job, but he swooped in on Baymax as he tried to get the mask away from him._

_Hiro dived and landed with a tumble on the ground along with the masked man. Hiro felt a stinging pain, but ignored it as he snatched up the mask lying on the ground. Hiro stood up and took a few steps back. Something wasn’t right, but he swallowed the lump that was in his throat. He wanted this man to see his face. He felt the sense of a somewhat pride for getting justice as he pressed the button to pull up the faceguard of his helmet._

_“It’s over Krei.” That was it, they had caught him._

**_Tadashi was right._ **

_It was Krei and that was meant to be the end of the story, but that’s not how it went as it continued._

_The man groaned and began to stand and his face turned toward Hiro with an angry glare. Hiro gasped and his jaw dropped, it couldn’t be real, the man in the kabuki mask wasn’t Krei, it was meant to someone that he knew was lost to the flames._

_“P-Professor Callaghan?”_

**_That’s impossible!_ **

_Despite how smart the young genius was, he couldn’t make any sense of what was unfolding in front of him. “The explosion….you died.”_

_Callaghan shook his head, “No, I had your microbots.” The pieces were falling all together into place and it all was beginning to make sense._

_Hiro felt himself fading away before he was struck by feelings of pain and loss. Before he was drawn back into a light he heard his own voice croak, “Tadashi….you just let him die.”_

**_What!?_ **

* * *

“Hiro. Hiro?”

The familiar robotic voice lulled him back into the reality, how long had he been out? Hiro’s head felt like it was split in half, he had migraines before but none were as bad as what he was experiencing. Hiro groaned as his vision began to straighten out.

“What happened?”

Baymax helped to sit him up while he explained. “I was activated by the sounds of distress to find you unconscious on the floor. I will scan you now….scan complete. You seem to be suffering from a possibility of a concussion, and a high level of fatigue. This may be connected by an odd amount of brainwave activity. Diagnosis: Inconclusive. I suggest seeking higher professional help considering that this has happened once before.”

Baymax helped the young adolescent up to stand. “I’m fine, Baymax.” Hiro’s luck wasn’t looking his way as his nose began to bleed. He pinched it and grabbed the nearest material, which happened to be an old cleaning rag and he let it bleed into the material as he pinched it against his nose.

“Hiro, do you wish for me to contact Tadashi?”

“Tadashi?” Hiro muttered aloud, suddenly it all came rushing back to him.

There had to be no doubt. The visions hadn't been wrong before, this would have to be no exception. The masked man was Robert Callaghan.

Suddenly Baymax scooped Hiro into his arms.

“Please calm down, I am aware that this is a confusing time.” He gently placed the boy onto the couch. “I will contact Tadashi now.”

Baymax made himself on speaker phone and the dial tone began. Hiro was about to agree before his sense hit him.

“Wait Baymax! No, no, no,no! Don’t call-”

_“Hello?”_

* * *

Tadashi was almost to his moped with the capacitors when he suddenly heard someone call out to him. He turned around to see that it was Wasabi.

“Hey Wasabi, what are you doing here today?”

“I just needed to grab a few things to increase the intensity of my plasma induced lasers. By the way I got your text, is that what we’re waiting on?” Wasabi referred to the box Tadashi held.

Tadashi nodded, “Yeah, the other ones got fried apparently, so I’m just running this quick errand.”

Wasabi’s expression turned to a serious one. “So this is for real, right? We’re really gonna go take down a bad guy as superheroes?” It was something they all wondered, not that it was going to stop them but it was definitely a thought that stuck to everyone.

Tadashi chuckled and attempted to lighten up the mood, “Well when you put it like that it sounds like we’re just some crazy comic book fans running around in spandex.”

Wasabi smiled, but also shivered, “Didn’t Fred basically do that last year after finals?”

Tadashi laughed, but Wasabi was right, it was something that they would never forget. It was a dare that Fred had set for himself after they finished their first round of finals the previous year. It was just Fred being Fred.

Suddenly the thought was interrupted by the sudden sound of a generic ringtone and the sound of vibration. Tadashi’s phone was ringing. “Can you hold this for a second please?”

Wasabi nodded, “Sure.” He was passed the box as Tadashi answered his phone.

“Hello?”

“Hello Tadashi.” It was a voice he knew all too well.

“Baymax? How did you-” Tadashi was cut off from to what sounded like Hiro trying to climb unto Baymax whilst he yelled,

_“I’m fine! Don’t listen to him!”_

“Wait Hiro? What’s-” Tadashi was ignored once more as Baymax sounded like he was talking to Hiro.

_“Hiro you have just regained consciousness, I advise you to rest.”_

That one statement resonated with Tadashi. A switch in Tadashi immediately flipped as it processed through his mind. “HE WHAT!?”

Tadashi heard Hiro yell back, _“Don’t listen to him, I’m fine.”_

Baymax interjected, _“Hiro, please sit down, your blood is beginning to drip everywhere.”_

Red flags were flying and Tadashi almost forgot how to breathe. “Baymax I’m coming home now! Just take care of Hiro until I get there!”

“Tadashi-” But he immediately hung up.

“Is everything alright?” Wasabi asked, confused as he only heard one side of the conversation.

Tadashi was already in a semi run, “Just tell the others to meet up at Fred’s house, alright?” It didn’t even register in Tadashi’s mind to tell them that something may have been wrong with Hiro. All he knew was that he needed to get to his brother.

“Wait Tadashi-”

“I gotta go. I’ll see you there.” And Tadashi sped off.

“Uh….” Wasabi looked down at the box of capacitors still left in his arms.

* * *

“Tadashi I just have a bloody nose I’m-” Hiro heard an ended call dial tone. “Dammit.” He groaned as Baymax closed the calling application. “Great, thanks Baymax, now he’s going to run in here thinking I’ve been stabbed or something.”

“Hiro, please rest.” Baymax insisted.

Hiro rolled his eyes as he was forced to remain seated on the couch with the fabric still against his nose. The bleeding stopped. Hiro knew what he had to do.

“Baymax, send a message to the others, tell them to suit up. We have to get ready.”

“Hiro-”

“Baymax, please. It’s important, I promise that once Tadashi’s back, no more lies. This will end.” And for the first time in a while, Hiro believed in what he said.

* * *

Gogo leant her head against her left hand as she leant over the table in Fred’s garden gazebo, with her right she strummed her fingers against the table in a rhythmic fashion. She blew and popped her bubble,

“So he just left you with a box of capacitors?...Why?”

All eyes were on the box on the table, Wasabi shrugged, “Well at the time he was too busy dealing with something over the phone.”

“Was everything alright?” Honey Lemon asked, with a worried look beginning to dawn over her face.

Wasabi shrugged once more, “He looked like he was freaking out, but I guess if it was something serious we would know, right?”

Fred nodded, “Don’t worry my amigos, I’m sure we’ll hear from _Cappie_ soon enough.”

Gogo and Wasabi didn’t want to ask, so it was lucky for them that Honey Lemon did, “ _Cappie_?”

Fred’s face scrunched up and he grunted, “I know, that was terrible. He does wear that cap all the time though. Hmm…”

The three were quick to realise that he was trying once more to figure out a nickname for Tadashi.

“I thought you had given up on trying to make a nickname for Tadashi?” Wasabi asked.

Fred laughed and shrugged, “I never gave up, I just didn’t think of it for a while.” He leant back and went back into thought.

The three collectively sighed and shook their heads. Suddenly a mass buzzing came from the four of them. They all got the same text message appear on their phones.

_‘Suit up.’_

“You all got Hiro’s message, right?” Honey Lemon quickly clarified, but knew it was obvious that they had.

“Well if it’s from the little guy, that means he’s okay so whatever Tadashi was going all crazy about had to be something else.” Fred didn’t seem too bothered by it, but it made the others wonder.

But all of them felt like something was wrong.

* * *

Tadashi came barrelling into the garage.

“Hiro!? Baymax!?”

“I’m here.” Hiro called out, he was standing near the table.

Tadashi didn’t even take a breath as he just blurted out to what sounded like a whole bunch on nonsense. “Hiro!? Areyouokay? Areyouhurt? Whathappened? Whydidyoupassout? WhydidBaymaxsaytherewasblood!?”

Hiro took a deep breath. “Tadashi breathe. I’m okay, really. False alarm.”

Tadashi kneeled down to Hiro’s level and he got a better look at his younger brother, what stood out was that he was now in his armour, but he was also pale as a sheet, and near his nose were traces of blood. He looked worse than he did the previous day.

“Hiro, you can’t expect me to believe that. Look at you, you look like you just came back from the dead. Please, Hiro. Tell me what is going on.”

 “Tadashi, you wouldn’t….” How could Hiro say it? He didn’t know, but then he had an idea, whilst he couldn’t explain it maybe he could show him. Hiro decided to take it a few baby steps at a time.

Baymax waddled into view. “Hello Tadashi.” Baymax was in his armour and helmet as well.

Tadashi knew something was wrong, “Hiro?”

“I’ll live okay, but for now we have bigger fish to fry.” Hiro felt in a word nauseated, but he was alright, but not exactly the best. “Gear up.” He passed Tadashi his suit. “I have a lot to explain, but you should probably get ready first.”

Tadashi reluctantly but quickly got into his suit. He wanted answers.  “Okay now, what is going on?”

Hiro felt his vision blur, Baymax moved toward him, “Hiro please rest, you have-”

“I’m fine.” Hiro insisted.

Tadashi was a patient man, but it was just getting to the point that he had enough of the secrecy, he crossed his arm, “Hiro I swear if you don’t tell me right now what is going on so help me-”

“I know the identity of the masked man!” Hiro snapped before Tadashi could finish. _‘So much for taking it slow.’_ Hiro mentally snorted at his own words.

Tadashi was silent before he narrowed his eyes at Hiro, “What? Hiro, like you said, we don’t know who this guy is, or even where he is for that matter.”

“The patient masked with a kabuki mask is located here.” Coordinates and a bird eyes view on an island appeared on Baymax.

Hiro wanted to smack his palm against his forehead.  Baymax had really done it now. Tadashi stared.

“You fixed the scanner?” Tadashi cocked his head to the side as he stared at the coordinates. Hiro began to say something, but Tadashi quickly cut him off, “We can stop the masked man! We have to call the others!”

Tadashi began to try and find his phone and fumbled around trying to find it before Hiro tightly gripped unto his arm, “Tadashi stop!”

He immediately stopped at Hiro’s desperate plea.

Tadashi calmed his voice, but it still held a kind of excitement. “Hiro, we have the coordinates, we can go and stop him!”

Hiro let go of Tadashi and ran a hand through his hair, “I know, but you need to hear me out, alright?” Hiro paused for a moment as he realised that now Tadashi was attentively listening. “You said you wanted answers so just listen.”

Tadashi could see it in Hiro’s eyes. It had to be important if he had that look in his eyes. Tadashi slowly nodded, “Okay, what did you want to tell me?”

Hiro let out a short breath and was about to begin but his face just scrunched up and he groaned with frustration. “This is gonna sound crazy, but trust me, you know I wouldn’t be like this right now if I was going crazy and besides I have proof!” It didn’t help that Hiro had a kind of crazy look in his eyes.

Tadashi remained quiet as Hiro continued,

“I’ve been….seeing things.” Hiro knew what he just said sounded like it contradicted what he had previously said, so he rephrased it, “And when I say seeing things, I mean that when I see them, they come true.”

Tadashi kept his arms folded across his chest as he continued to stare at Hiro.

“So you’re saying that you’re..…psychic?”

“Yes.” Hiro then shook his head, “I mean no, but I…” How was he supposed to explain it? Tadashi already thought he was crazy. Then it occurred to him, he may have not have any proof about his dream about the fire, but he did about the building. “Remember how you asked about how I found about the masked man when my microbot lead me to an abandoned warehouse?”

Tadashi nodded, the look of confusion was still plastered over his face.

Hiro continued, “And remember the night when you came home late and saw me drawing?”

Tadashi nodded once more.

“I saw the abandoned warehouse then! I saw it and I drew it the day before I was lead there by my microbot! It’s because I see these things that I’m like, well, this.” He referred back to his pale complexion.

Tadashi almost looked sympathetic toward his younger brother, “Hiro, that can’t be possible.”

Hiro sighed, “I know, I didn’t believe it, I didn’t want to, but it happened. You think I would make this all up?”

It was silence between them for a moment. The silence said it all to Hiro, he groaned,

“I knew I shouldn’t have bothered, you don’t even believe me!”

Tadashi shook his head, “Hiro it’s not that I….okay, so you say that you’ve seen the future, what has that got to do with the masked man?”

Hiro meant it as a mutter to himself, but Tadashi still heard, “Everything.”

“Hiro…” Tadashi knew that his brother wouldn’t go to the extent of lying on that scale, but he knew that it wasn’t, or rather it couldn’t be possible, but he knew that it was obviously real to Hiro so he at least tried to believe. “So what exactly did you see?”

Hiro crossed his arms, not in frustration but rather in a self-protecting manner.

“I saw who the man was behind the mask.” Hiro let a shaky breath slip away from his lips. “And you’re not gonna like it.” Hiro added as he looked down as if to study the floor.

Tadashi thought that he had come to a great moment of truth. “I know already, Hiro.”

Hiro looked back up to Tadashi in disbelief, “What? You do?”

Tadashi nodded, “Hiro you didn’t need to see anything or tell me about for me to know who it is. It’s Alistair Krei.”

Hiro rolled his eyes and sighed, “No, it’s not.”

Tadashi noticed Hiro’s sass and immediately got annoyed, “Then who else would it be, Hiro?”

“Robert Callaghan!” Hiro replied sternly.

That was the last name Tadashi expected to hear, and it was like a ringing in his mind appeared, He imagined the man, the same man he saw as a kind mentor and father figure, being the masked man, the very same man that had tried to not only kill him, but his friends and Hiro as well. Everything else was becoming numb.

Tadashi shook his head, no, Hiro was wrong.  Tadashi grumbled to himself as he turned away from Hiro, “Unbelievable. You did not just say that.” He turned back toward Hiro. “How could you say that!? He’s dead, Hiro! And it’s all because of the masked man!”

Hiro had to admit that Tadashi’s new anger intimidated him, but he stood his ground, “Dead, or faked his death?” Tadashi turned away as Hiro continued, “Think about it! Who was left in the building? Callaghan. Who supposably died in the fire? Callaghan. It fits!”

Tadashi gritted his teeth as he threw his head back into Hiro’s direction, “You know what else ‘fits’? Who wanted your microbots? Krei. Who’s company decided to have no comment on the fire? Krei’s. Who has been known to be conceited and full of greed? Krei! So tell me one good reason why it would be Callaghan.”

Hiro was hiding it well, but Tadashi was scaring him, but not as much as he annoyed him. The heat of their conversation was firing up at alarming rates. Baymax said something about elevated blood pressure, but the two brother’s ignored the healthcare robot.

“I-I don’t know, but why would I lie about this!? Tell me that!"

Tadashi could feel his mind racing and thoughts were fighting for dominance in his mind, but they were racing around too quickly for him to catch one. He couldn’t think straight. "I want to believe you, Hiro. I really do, but you can’t just stand there and tell me that you see these so called ‘visions’ and that my dead professor is the masked man!"

"You just don’t want to believe that it’s Callaghan! If only you would just believe-"

**_"Hiro!"_ **

Hiro visibly flinched. Tadashi had never yelled his name in that tone before, not even after during a scolding after he had been bot fighting. It didn’t take much for Hiro to know that Tadashi sounded completely furious.

Tadashi visibly tried to calm back down after seeing Hiro flinch, a part of his rationality was coming back to him, but it vanished as after what he said next. “I’m going to the island. And it’s going to be Krei, just you wait.”

Hiro mentally shook his head in disbelief. Tadashi was letting himself be blinded by his own stubbornness, but unluckily for Tadashi he wasn’t the only one that was stubborn, it was a Hamada trait.

"Fine. Take Baymax and go!” Hiro angrily pointed toward the exit. “But don’t think that I’m going too!"

Hiro inhaled shakily before he let words fall from his lips that he knew would make the greatest shift in the argument.

"The reason I agreed to capturing the masked man in the first place was because I hoped that you could be yourself again, but I know now that I was wrong. I don’t even know who you are anymore.” Tadashi attempted to interject, but Hiro continued with a last fatal strike as the words fell from his lips, “You are so blinded that your judgement is clouded. Tadashi wouldn’t let that happen. It’s clear to me now that my brother is gone because there is no way that you’re my brother."

Hiro felt a twinge of regret, but he still stood his ground. Tadashi’s face was unreadable, but that was only because Tadashi’s own inner conflict began in himself, but it wasn’t enough to stop Tadashi from what he said next.

"Well maybe if you hadn’t of stopped me from saving Callaghan, things wouldn’t have turned out this way." His voice didn’t hold his normal kind demeanour, instead it was serious and slightly harsh, yet it was still said calmly.

Hiro froze, Tadashi couldn’t have been implying what he thought he did. His guess was only confirmed as Tadashi grabbed Baymax’s arm and turned his back, not daring to look Hiro in the eye he turned and walked away leaving Hiro alone in the dark.


	6. Chapter 6

"Your blood pressure is elevated, you appear to be distressed."

"I'm fine." Tadashi snapped. "Baymax, wings." Had he flown on Baymax before? The answer was a definite no, but it was lucky for him that Baymax was now experienced enough to make sure they didn't crash.

Tadashi's mind was reeling with multiple voices in his head, one was screaming at him to turn back around and apologize to Hiro immediately, but a different voice in his mind managed to drown it down with promises that he was right about Krei. The brother's had fought before, but none were to the scale that they had just experienced, and he was the eldest, Tadashi knew he shouldn't have said what he did, but he knew that there was no going back. And along with his goal he remained blind to his misdeed.

Before he knew it, Baymax had already landed in Fred's backyard garden where the others had geared up and were waiting.

"What took you so long?" Gogo asked as she then blew a bubble of gum.

Honey Lemon was the first to notice that they were missing a certain genius. "Where's Hiro?"

Determined to keep whatever regret he felt, he shoved it down as he replied, "He decided to sit this one out."

They exchanged looks, they all knew something was up, but they all kept quiet about it.

Gogo was close to mentioning something about it, but she was stopped as Wasabi cleared his throat and changed the subject.

"Hey, I brought the box of capacitors you left with me. Was everything okay?"

Tadashi stared at the box, he connected two and two. The scanner was never broken, Hiro never needed the capacitors. Hiro had lied. His face hardened.

"It turned out that it wasn't needed." Tadashi sighed pulling the best calm expression he could muster, "Anyway, we have the location on the masked man."

* * *

Hiro stood frozen for a long time, if anything he was right. That wasn't Tadashi, it couldn't have been. Tadashi would never say anything like that, or maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was Tadashi and that's what he really thought.

_"Well maybe if you hadn't of stopped me from saving Callaghan, things wouldn't have turned out this way."_

Hiro angrily picked up and threw a screwdriver lying on the bench, he threw whatever he could get his hands on in a fit of rage.

_How dare he pin the blame on me! After I stopped his sorry as-_

Hiro froze in mid-thought as he attempted to toss the tool box, but he quickly realised the obvious fact that he wasn't strong enough and that it was too heavy. Hiro slid to the ground..

Hiro didn't know if he wanted to yell or cry, he felt too conflicted to decide. Hiro rolled unto the concrete floor and he shut his eyes letting out a deep breath. Hiro felt like he should've known from the beginning that Tadashi wasn't going to believe him about Callaghan. Tadashi was hurting of Callaghan's 'death', he didn't want to believe him, or rather believe the truth.

"That still doesn't give him the right to say that." Hiro groaned to himself.  _How could this day get any worse?_

The sudden sound of vibrating metal caused Hiro to immediately sit back up. He looked around for the source. It was getting louder and a light started emitting from under the desk on the other side of the room. Hiro pulled himself up and cautiously walked toward the light.

A wrench that Hiro had thrown onto the ground nearby was suddenly pulled toward the source of light as if a powerful magnet had attracted it. Hiro stared for a moment and he then quickly came up with an idea. He picked up a nearby hammer and tossed it onto the ground near the desk and like the wrench, it was drawn under the desk into the light. It had some sort of suctioning feature. Hiro cocked his head with curiosity and slight fear began to grow within him.

"Well, it's not the weirdest thing to happen today." Hiro muttered to himself as he got closer to the desk. He ducked down to inspect what it was, but before he could even see what it was, he was drawn into the source of the mysterious light.

* * *

After what seemed like an endless flight with Wasabi's neurotic complaining about heights, they finally found themselves at the island.

Baymax gently landed and the team officially made it.

"Our first landing as a team!...Well I mean, excluding Hiro, but still, this is cool." Fred went into 'ninja mode' and started scoping around the area, or rather he tried as they all kept a close eye on him.

Tadashi spoke in a hush whisper, "Guys, c'mon." He lead the way, but Fred still wandered around in front as the others.

Wasabi spotted a nearby sign and he read its heading aloud. "Quarantine. Uh…Do you people know what quarantine means?" The question was rhetorical, but Baymax ended up answering the question anyway.

"Quarantine: enforced isolation to prevent contamination that could lead to diseases, or some cases death."

Wasabi sarcastically laughed, "Well there's a skull face on this one. A skull face!"

They all understood Wasabi's nervousness, they were worried too, but not to that extent. Tadashi put his hand against the door, he could already tell by looking at it that it was sealed shut.

"Oh! Oh! Rip it off! Super strength, c'mon Tadashi!" Fred happily suggested.

Tadashi looked to Wasabi and an idea struck.  _Maybe letting him do this might loosen him up._

* * *

Hiro landed flat on his face. He grunted as he pulled himself from the ground. "This day just gets better and better." Hiro sarcastically said aloud to himself. He looked up and had to do a double take to see where he was.

It was astonishing. There was a somewhat distorted colour everywhere, and wherever he was looked like it went on forever. There was something similar to what look like marshmallow clouds aimlessly floating around. Hiro stared around in awe. He even looked down to see he was standing on some sort of transparent pathway. Hiro had seen things, but nothing to that scale, it was incredible.

"And so we finally meet."

Hiro turned toward the voice and he gasped as he felt his jaw drop. He thought visions were crazy, but now it was on a completely different level. Hiro thought he experienced everything crazy that could've possibly happened, but now it was just ridiculous.

An identical duplicate of himself stood before him. He even wore the same armour, but it was more scratched and battered. His copy was a few feet taller and his hair was shaggier and he had a look that made him seem more mature though Hiro couldn't place why.

The duplicate spoke, "Wow, was I really that short?" He laughed to himself.

"Who are you?" Hiro was genuinely curious and worried about the answer to his question.

His duplicate frowned, "I thought it was obvious. I'm you, well, not exactly but it's a close enough answer."

Hiro glared with a mix of further confusion and frustration. The other Hiro sighed, knowing that there was no time for jokes. "I know you have questions and whatever they are, now is the time to ask."

Hiro had no idea what to say, he hoped to get over the initial shock of it all, but he was overwhelmed. His mind was racing in a cluttered mess, but only two questions slipped away from his mind and out of his mouth.

"In detail, who are you? Are you from the future?"

The other Hiro almost laughed, but he quickly calmed himself and replied. "I'm not your future-self, but it wouldn't be entirely accurate to say that I'm not." Hiro was only getting more confused, the "Older Hiro" saw this and continued, "It's difficult to explain but like I said before, I'm you, but I'm a different version of you. A different path."

Hiro blinked in disbelief, "A different path?"

Older Hiro shrugged and folded his arms. "An alternate reality, or universe, whatever you would like to call it. I use both terms."

Hiro was silent for a moment as he processed it. Hiro didn't know if he wanted to laugh or be angrily confused. "Un-"

"-Believable?" The other Hiro laughed with a smile in response to seeing Hiro's confused face. He nodded, "I know, but how else would you explain us being here and your visions?"

Hiro immediately tensed at the mention of his visions. Hiro said one word that held many of his questions,

"Why?"

The other Hiro had a guilty expression appear across his face, but he pulled back up the calm façade and began to answer the question.

"Your reality was the closest to my timeline." Older Hiro paused as he noticed how Hiro was attentively listening. He decided to start from the beginning.

"You should be glad to know that your visions aren't at random, but you already knew that. You figured it out a while ago and you were right about them being intentional. They're my memories that I've been sending to you."

Hiro eyes widened, "Wait what? Memories?"

Older Hiro nodded, "I'll try to give you a brief run through. A few weeks ago I was reconfiguring an old piece of tech that I vowed to myself that I wouldn't let fall into the wrong hands. It was a dimensional transport portal, whilst the dimensional transport was a step in technology and science, none of it compared to what I found. When I fixed it with my own few alterations I found different universes. After my tweaking the portal acted as a path to millions of them, for example, we're standing in a pathway right now." Older Hiro referred to the world around them.

"It's why you and I can both exist in one dimension without tearing a hole the space-time continuum, but that's just the minor details." Older Hiro shrugged with a ghost of a proud smile. He quickly went on to continue, "Every reality has unique features in all of them, but more importantly, I found that with universes they can have more than just one parallel reality. With every parallel reality to each other, they basically have the same timeline, but with only a few details that have been altered, but they all still have the same key moments in time. Your universe is one of the twenty seven that is almost parallel to mine."

"And the reason you chose my reality was because the timeline was closer?" Hiro clarified.

Older Hiro nodded, "Currently, I'm sixteen and you're fourteen. The second closest timeline is only up to our tenth birthday. All the realities are at different stages of time. None of them are in the same order."

Older Hiro began to get to his point, as he tapped on his own head three times, "I modified a neural cranial transmitter to not to control microbots as it normally would, but instead send images, sounds and memories to whoever I wanted as long as I focused hard enough. I managed to make the signal strong enough to reach and travel through the portal and to the closest reality that I opened the dimensional door nearest to. I know this all sounds massively creepy and weird, but I have good reasoning as to why, trust me."

Talking to himself was weird enough, but now he was asking himself to trust himself..…Hiro's head hurt, he may have been a genius, but he was just confused because it was crazy. All of it. But it was happening, so he mentally shrugged.  _Seeing is believing after all._

Older Hiro continued to finish his explanation, "The technology for the transmitter itself was a prototype. After using it only twice it accidently had your mind synced up to mine even without the transmitter on. I accidently made you see things that I knew you didn't need to see. The prolonged sync was also causing a physical strain on your body since your brain was over stimulated. And your health has begun deteriorating because of it. And for that I'm sorry, that's my bad."

" _My bad_?" Hiro repeated, he glared and yelled, "Do you have any idea what I was put through because of all that!?"

Older Hiro was surprised at the reaction, but he put his hands up in defence, "That's why I was so worried about sending you the final memory about the identity of the masked man. I already put you through so much, I thought that enough was enough." Older Hiro also had his own reasons as to why he was at first reluctant, but he decided that it wasn't for Hiro to hear. Older Hiro felt a mild guilt as he saw Hiro look crestfallen at the answer.

Older Hiro tried to give him a better explanation, "And that's also part of the reason why I wanted to see you face to face, I wanted to tell you that I'm destroying the transmitter for good so the sync should end along with it. So no more visions and no more physical fatigue, you'll be yourself again. And you shouldn't hear from me again anytime soon." Older Hiro forced a smile as he brushed a hand through his messy hair; there it was. Hiro recognized the signs, he recognized his nervous habit. It was now obvious that Older Hiro was hiding something.

* * *

After some encouragement, Wasabi used his Plasma induced lasers to make a path through the door. He tried to make a circle like it would happen in movies, but it didn't end as well as he hoped. But as the metal fell forward, they couldn't help but stare down the dark hall.

They travelled down the hall, and to fill the silence Fred began to sing, he eventually got louder and louder.

"Freds Angels. Mmm-Mmm. Fred's Angels. Mmm-Mmm. Harnessing the power of the sun with the ancient amulet they found in the attic. Mmm-Mmm. The amulet is green. Mmm-Mmm. It's probably an emerald. Mmm-"

"Fred!" Wasabi was the first to decide that he was sick of it. "I will laser hand you in the face!"

Tadashi hushed them down and asked Baymax, "Can you scan him from here?"

Baymax tried and it didn't work. "The structure is interfering with my sensors."

"Perfect. That's helpful." Sometimes they wished that Wasabi was less pessimistic, especially due to the situation that they were in.

They all kept walking forward, but something caught Honey Lemon's eye. She looked through the crack of the partly open door to her right. She silently gasped and halted the others.

"Guys, you might want to see this." She pushed opened the door and the others gawked at the sight. It was some sort of broken and distorted structure of something that looked like two giant ringlets. If they thought they were getting too deep before, they were proven wrong at the sight.

"That's the symbol that Hiro drew." Gogo pointed down to the red symbol below them.

"Tadashi." Honey Lemon pointed up the stairs. Baymax opened the door as the group peered into see abandoned computer and monitoring equipment. A large screen held the symbol of the red bird.

The six approached the computer. Tadashi clicked a few keys on the keyboard and few files appeared. It was a surveillance file. A figure stood out from the others on one of the files thumbnail.

Tadashi stared as he recognized one of the figures on the thumbnail, "Krei?"

* * *

Hiro was almost scared to ask, but he had to know the truth behind all the madness, "You said you did this all for good reason, so what is that reason? Why do all this? Why go so far?"

Older Hiro's smile disappeared within a blink. He suddenly couldn't look Hiro in the eyes. Older Hiro took a deep breath and he finally looked back to Hiro with a sober look.

"Remember how I said in the parallel realities that they had key events in time?" Older Hiro paused to exhale shakily, "The night when the showcase building was on fire was a key moment. Meaning, in every reality that was similar to mine it was bound to happen." The other Hiro stared directly into Hiro's eyes and he swallowed a lump forming in his throat, "Tadashi was meant to die in that fire."

Hiro gasped, it all made sense to the dedication to the very first vision. Hiro didn't even register as a thought when his other self and said he sent memories. It only then clicked in his brain. Tadashi was destined to die from the beginning. Hiro looked to the other Hiro for confirmation; he didn't want to be right.

Hiro felt his heart drop as Older Hiro slowly nodded, "In my universe, two years ago, Tadashi died in that fire. But he didn't in yours because I interfered. I let you see it before it happened, and you stopped him."

Hiro felt a panic rise within him that not even his anger toward his brother could drown, "You said it was a key event, so does that mean he's still going to die!?"

He felt relief consume him as Older Hiro shook his head and replied,

"I don't know, maybe one day, hopefully not any day soon. The answer for now at least is no. Since I interfered that event was erased from the timeline. Any similar events connected to that have also been altered. That much I'm sure of. I did a lot of research and theoretical trialling before I had you see my first memory. I made sure that his fate that would be permanently changed."

Hiro blinked, his alternate self, he went through so much, and for what? "But why? Even by changing my timeline it doesn't change yours. Why go through all this again?"

"It was for the both of us." A single simple sentence was uttered but the answer itself was far more complicated than that. Older Hiro carried a neutral expression, "It's a second chance. A chance I never got…" He paused for a moment. "…A chance Tadashi never got."

Hiro felt a spike of guilt shoot through him.

Older Hiro began to frown, "While I might not have been able to go to your universe due to being a dimensional duplicate, I have been able to watch what has been happening. And lately…well let's just say that our sync went both ways." Hiro felt the guilt prickle in the place of his anger toward Tadashi.

"So you know about the…" Hiro didn't have to finish, his other self was already nodding.

Hiro sheepishly looked down as he smiled with no trace of anything, the smile was empty. "You must hate me."

Older Hiro eyebrows narrowed in confusion and asked, "Why would you think that?"

Hiro didn't want to look up. "Tadashi, well, your Tadashi is….gone, and then you have me and I can't..…I don't." Hiro couldn't find the words.

Older Hiro understood more than Hiro knew. "It's ok to be mad at him, after what he said I would've been too."

Hiro needed the confirmation, but it still didn't make his guilt go away, just like his guilt didn't drive his anger away.

Older Hiro saw and smirked, "Besides, I could never hate myself, we're too handsome for that."

Hiro let a small scoff escape him at the remark. Then suddenly to Hiro's surprise, Older Hiro suddenly genuinely smiled,

"I'm not here to tell you what you should and shouldn't do. But I know that you need each other, despite everything that's happened that won't change. This second chance is a new beginning, a new start, and what you choose to do with that, is up to you. I have no right to ask this, but all that I ask is that you use this second chance with each other, whether it's your ups or your downs."

Silence filled the space between them. Hiro eventually replied, "I'm not going to say that I'm still not mad, but I can agree to that much."

Older Hiro unintentionally sighed in relief. And there it all was; the truth that Hiro had desperately wanted. Did it confuse him? Yes. But he didn't care. He understood it was crazy and complicated, but he finally knew, and that's what really mattered.

Hiro's face scrunched up. There was still one thing that was still bothering him. "Alright, I get why you would send me your memory the first time, but why the abandoned building? If Tadashi was safe, then why would you continue to send me these memories?"

Older Hiro grinned, "It's obvious, isn't it?"

Hiro wasn't seeing whatever was 'obvious'. Older Hiro's grin widened at the response.

"The Big Hero 6. The team. Without the…" He paused for a moment to think and rephrase what he wanted to say. "…original motivation, the team wouldn't have ever been formed. Callaghan was the first person we took down and brought to justice. And if I've learned about anything in my two years of being a superhero, it's that San Fransokyo needs the team. The city needs the Big Hero 6…" Older Hiro smiled radiantly, "Or in your case, the Big Hero 7."

Hiro liked the sound of that. Despite what was going on between him and Tadashi, he would never wish for him to have run into the fire that night. He would never wish that, not ever.

Older Hiro stretched and attempted to crack his back as he let out a large sigh, it sounded as if a large weight had been lifted from him. "I've cut out a lot of time for you as it is and we both have a job to do. I would say that it's time to for us to go back home."

"And for me to do what?" Hiro asked. "Everything's a mess." He wasn't wrong.

Older Hiro approached Hiro leaving only an arms lengths distance between them.

"I know, and I'm sorry again for that, but you can figure it out. Use that big brain of yours to think of a way out. Look for a new angle."

Hiro recognized the words immediately. His other self didn't seem to register what he said was Tadashi's past advice. Hiro took the words to heart like he once did.

"And I probably shouldn't say this, but Callaghan and Krei are connected just not in a way you would expect."

Hiro blinked, how did that work? How were they connected in anyway?

"Oh and Hiro?" Older Hiro looked hesitant, but relaxed as he said, "Just remember when you see that everything is clear, sometimes it's good to duck down. You never know what could come flying at you." He smiled and winked at Hiro.

Before Hiro could question the cryptic words, his other self suddenly pushed him. Hiro fell backward and felt as if he was falling and tumbling down a rabbit hole. And the next thing he knew, he tumbled across a concrete floor.

He was back. Hiro jumped unto his feet. He could already feel his energy coming back to him, whether it was because the transmitter had been destroyed or he had a new goal, he didn't know, all he did know was that he had work to do.

He needed to help the others, but they would already be on the island.

Hiro repeated what he was told, " _Callaghan and Krei are connected just not in a way you would expect._  What does that mean?"

How did Callaghan have anything to do with Krei. From the night at the showcase it looked like they hated each other, but what had Hiro stuck was why.

"That's it!" The young genius exclaimed to himself, he threw on his helmet and ran out of the garage. He knew what he had to do, or rather what he wanted to find.

* * *

Tadashi was quick to click on the file and rewind the footage. He played it from the beginning.

The team watched as the footage played. It was Krei presenting something to what looked like to be potential buyers and even someone from the military.

" _Friends, I present project: Silent Sparrow."_

_They were some sort of portals. That kind of technology was only films, but yet it was being witnessed firsthand._

" _May I?" Krei held out his hand. The military commander handed his hat to Krei._

_Krei through the hat through the portal, and a man caught it coming from the portal on the other side._

"Woah, magic hat!" Fred commented.

_The man threw the hat back and it reappeared on the original side. It was definitely something unlike they had ever seen before._

Tadashi fast forward a little further.

_Krei went on to speak to a pilot getting already in a pod._

" _Ready to go for a ride, Abigail?"_

_She climbed into the pod. "We invited all these people, might as well give them a show."_

_They began to prepare. A man spoke up as he stared at his monitor._

" _Sir, we've picked up a slight irregularity in the magnetic containment field."_

_Krei looked at the screen, a frown was a clear feature on his face._

" _Is something wrong Mr Krei?"_

_He shook his head and insisted that it was all under control. The pod shot through into the portal, and what could've possibly gone wrong happened._

_A man started to shout that they had lost all form of communication with the pilot._

"Oh-no." Honey Lemon mumbled as they continued to watch the events play out.

_The portal began to destroy itself and everything around it. It devoured anything and everything near it._

" _The containment shields are failing!"_

_The military commander stepped in next to the monitor, "Krei! Shut this down now!"_

_With a push of a few buttons the portal shut off. Krei was forced to shut the machine down._

The clip continued to play, no one payed attention as Tadashi stated aloud, "The government shut down Krei's experiment."

"Now he's using Hiro's microbots to steal his machine back." Honey Lemon added.

"The guy in the mask is Krei." That's what he really wanted to hear, but something was telling him that he should've listen to Hiro and he didn't know why. The evidence was in front of him, he was right, it was Krei. But he wondered to himself as to why it didn't feel right.

The sound of motion behind them drew his attention away from his thoughts. He only had a split moment to see a massive piece of debris coming toward them.

Luckily for the team, Baymax was the first to react, and Tadashi was the second. Tadashi held back the debris that threatened to fall forwards on them as Baymax held the top half for support.

The team coughed at the lingering dust, all happy to be still in one piece.

"Well it's good to know your gear works." Honey Lemon remarked optimistically up seeing Tadashi effortlessly holding back the wall.

Tadashi turned his head towards Baymax. "Hey bud, you mind getting us out of here?" The robot immediately used his new fist feature and it shot through the rocks and they all climbed up from the hole and the team faced the masked man.

The masked man looked shocked that they were still alive, that only made their blood boil even more so.

Tadashi glared. "Get the transmitter! It should be behind his mask!"

The masked man threw another piece of debris, it took Tadashi by surprised and he stopped it by catching it mid-air, but not before he was thrown back by the force of the throw into Baymax.

"Tadashi!" Honey Lemon yelled.

Wasabi tried to keep a level head, "Alright, what's the plan?"

"It's Fred time!" Fred exclaimed as he pulled down the head of his suit and he sprang into action, the masked man immediately and without a second look, took Fred down.

Wasabi then asked the girls, hoping for a better answer, "Seriously, what's the plan?"

"Get the mask." Gogo zoomed off.

"Right behind you!" Honey Lemon ran after her.

"For real, what is the plan!?" But they were already in gone and they were in action.

* * *

Hiro managed to sneak around the university grounds without being seen, it would've been a bit hard to explain why he was running around in purple armour and he was already half way to SFIT when he realised.

He stepped into Tadashi's lab and opened up his computer. The download was still paused. Hiro could tell from the downloading screen what kind of software Tadashi was using. It was spyware bot that self terminates after a few minutes. To Hiro at the age of seven, it was an achievement, but he was now fourteen and he knew more then he probably should have known.

Hiro placed his helmet on the desk as he rolled his eyes and stopped the download. He didn't need the bot's original use, but with a bot where it was, it was a direct line to the one of the Krei Tech servers, it made it like a walk in the park for Hiro.

He cracked his knuckles and went to work at Krei Tech's systems. Hiro got down the systems within minutes, he set a mental timer for when the system would recognize something was wrong and that the firewall had been breached, but he had plenty of time. An hour was more than enough time to go snooping around in the systems.

Hiro had to dig deep into the special project files, one file stood out from the others. It was the red symbol that he saw at the abandoned warehouse and at the docks. It took Hiro a fair effort to get past the extra layers of security, but he just managed to slip by it.

He clicked on the file and started flicking threw the sub-headings.

_Akuma Island_

Hiro clicked unto it. He immediately recognized the coordinates and the location, it was the island where the others were. Hiro leant back in the chair and stared. He clicked around some more until a specific video file drew his attention. Hiro accessed the file and it began to play surveillance footage.

" _Friends, I present project: Silent Sparrow."_

* * *

The teams efforts were all for naught, they ended up taking down each other rather than the masked man. Going in without a plan wasn't the best way of going at it, but it was too late to think of one.

As they were down the masked man prepared to make a final strike a large rock came flying at him. He just missed by a few inches.

His attention was away from the others, but he had no time to react as Tadashi jumped and tackled him from the platform. The microbots dropped harmlessly above the team as Tadashi and the man tumbled toward the ground level below and the masked was knocked off in the process.

Tadashi felt his head throb in pain, but he quickly recovered as he saw the mask lying on the floor. He snatched it, expecting the masked man to fight him for it, but all he saw was the man lying face down on the ground as he groaned with pain.

Tadashi stood up as his chest heaved. The moment he both hoped and was suddenly dreading was among him.

"It's over Krei."

The man stood up, and Tadashi felt his world flip. It had to be impossible, but it was a harsh reality that screamed at him. He could practically feel as the fog lifted from his mind as he finally processed the evidential truth that stood before him.

"P-Professor Callaghan?" Tadashi croaked.

The others were watching from above and gasped in disbelief. Callaghan didn't look pleased. He gritted his teeth.

"Give me the mask, Hamada."

Tadashi couldn't comprehend what was in front of him, his thoughts were a trainwreck, but he still managed to say something. "B-But you can't be here. The explosion….you died."

Callaghan shook his head, "No I had your brother's microbots."

At the mention of Hiro, Tadashi instantly tensed. He was right. And Tadashi had been so wrong. Tadashi looked down at the mask, his grip tightened as his gaze did not leave it. "Why?"

"I'm merely righting an injustice that Alistair Krei began."

Tadashi looked back up toward Callaghan and as if he could sense Tadashi's reluctance, he threw a punch across his former student's head. As Tadashi was temporarily stunned by Callaghan's right hook, Callaghan stole back the mask and tried to make his escape.

Despite their shock, the others went into action as soon as Tadashi hit the ground. Gogo was the first to try and halt Callaghan as she threw a disk as she bladed down the safety railings to get closer. Honey Lemon followed up as she tapped away at her chemical purse and threw her spherical chemical concoction toward him.

Callaghan deflected both of them with ease, but the chemical concoction ball made some of the microbots stuff in a pink goo substance, but Callaghan abandoned those few microbots and escaped from a hole in the ceiling. Fred attempted to jump after him, but Callaghan was already gone.

Wasabi helped Tadashi back unto his feet, "Are you okay?"

_No, not after that. Hiro was right and I didn't listen and I said terrible things and after all I said to him-_  "I'm alright."

Baymax wandered over. "You're injuries do not require my assistance, however, I do suggest rest."

"Thanks Baymax." Tadashi mumbled as the others approached them.

"Well, that was not what I was expecting." Gogo pointed out.

Honey Lemon nodded and frowned, "He was such a good man. What could lead him to do all this?"

"It doesn't make any sense." Wasabi added as he pondered to himself.

Fred was about to say something to do with a comic book villain, but he was stopped as they all heard a static and a voice,

" _Guys, do you read me? It's me, Hiro."_

The team had almost forgotten that they had a communicator feature within their helmets. Gogo pressed the button on the side of her helmet,

"Yeah, we read you. Where are-"

" _Good. Meet me at school in Tadashi's lab now. You're going to want to see this. Hiro out."_

Tadashi's hand was hovering over his communicator button, but he didn't dare press it and say anything. What could he say? That he was sorry? That he was wrong? Nothing could fix what he said. Tadashi told himself mentally over and over that he was a terrible and horrible person. But he decided that the only thing he could do know was to face him.

"We better get going."

* * *

Tadashi originally thought he had felt no regret when Callaghan first supposedly 'died'. As the days went by it really began to hit him. The 'what ifs' flooded his mind so he became determined to give himself closure, which lead to him thinking that the man who had started the fire was Krei. He was so convinced that it had to be Krei, but the worst part, the very worst part of it all was that he blamed Hiro for stopping him.

It was a verbal knife in the back. He had basically said that he would rather leave Hiro alone than thank him for stopping him. And what was this all? It was to try and defend the very same man who faked his death and that started the fire. He had even told himself for almost all his life that Hiro came first. When had he lost sight of that? For the rest of his days he knew he would never forgive himself, but none of that mattered because in the end, Hiro might not forgive him.

Baymax landed as discretely as possible. There were still students wandering around the campus. Wasabi had to drag Fred around because unlike the others, he was okay with being seen, but the others didn't agree.

Baymax decided to take his time through doorways, so they just left him to catch up after Tadashi insisted that he would be fine.

They managed to sneak into the lab area; lucky for them it was empty. The others walked toward Tadashi's lab, but Tadashi paused outside the door. What was Hiro going to say? Would he even speak to him? He held his breath as he stepped in.

Hiro sat at Tadashi's desk beside his computer. Hiro immediately spotted Tadashi as they came in. He and Tadashi exchanged a glance, but Hiro quickly broke away. Tadashi thought that Hiro was hiding his anger, but little did he know that it was just sadness.

"Hiro, you will not believe who the masked man is!" Fred exclaimed as he pulled down his suit-head.

"Callaghan." Hiro replied as he turned around in the chair and went on to type something into the computer. "I already know."

Everyone but Tadashi blinked at Hiro in confusion.

"I take it that you guys found out at the island?"

"How did you find out?" Gogo asked.

Hiro then knew that Tadashi hadn't said anything about what happened between them, and decided that maybe it was for the best.

"I found something." Hiro turned back toward them. "Do you guys know anything about a project called 'Silent Sparrow'?"

Honey Lemon nodded. "It was Krei's experiment that the government shut down."

Hiro was genuinely surprised that they actually knew anything, but it did make things easier for him.  _'They must have accessed the old archives left at the island.'_  Hiro thought to himself.

"So you saw the footage?"

Fred nodded and replied, "Yeah."

"Did you see Callaghan in the footage?"

"Yea-" Fred began, but he realised, "No. Wait, he was in the footage?"

"Wait. Hold up, how did you know about the footage?" Wasabi asked.

Hiro shrugged, "I used the connection to the Krei Tech server through the hackbot and got into the system undetected. No big deal."

Tadashi hid a the slightest sign of a smile; of course Hiro would think it was nothing. The others remained surprised at the young boy genius, but it still didn't compete with the biggest surprise of that day.

Hiro shrugged it off and fast forward the footage and showed the others. Everyone crowded around the computer, including Tadashi, but he still kept his distance.

It was right up to the point where Krei had shut down the power. Suddenly Callaghan came bolting down a flight of stairs and angrily tried to get his hands on Krei.

" _Krei! You did this! You knew it wasn't ready!"_ It took three men to hold him back.

"Why was he there though?" Gogo asked, mumbling something else under her breath that no one else caught.

Hiro reversed the footage a little more, and he then showed Callaghan hugging the pilot.

"Callaghan and the pilot?" Honey Lemon questioned.

Hiro paused at the front camera of the pilot; he paused and magnified the name written on her helmet. They saw it as clear as day. The final piece of the puzzle.

_Callaghan_

"The pilot was Callaghan's daughter and Callaghan blames Krei." Hiro stated. He then pulled up the digtal copy of the pilot's personnel file only to emphasize his point.

"This is a revenge story." Fred gasped and pieced it together for himself. And they all agreed with Fred. Revenge was an ugly thing, and it could change even the kindest of men.

Wasabi had it finally hit him, "He would be going after Krei now!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Gogo remarked. Baymax finally made it to the lab, but was guided back out by Honey Lemon.

The others began to leave. Gogo spotted a leftover gum packet near her 'lab', she shrugged and grabbed it. It was going to be a long day.

Hiro and Tadashi didn't move from where they were. Hiro remained seated and Tadashi remained standing in the center of the room.

"Tadashi. Hiro. c'mon!" Fred cocked his head to the door.

"We'll catch up." Tadashi informed and gave Fred a look that politely yet sternly asked him to go. Fred got the message and disappeared from the doorway.

It was silence between the two, until Hiro broke it as he suddenly stood from the chair and put on his helmet.

"We have work to do." He was about to pass Tadashi, but Tadashi shook his head and began,

"I don't even know if there is anything I could possibly say to you without it sounding like a poor excuse." Tadashi was honest with Hiro.

"Then don't say anything." Hiro grumbled, and that's what Tadashi was waiting for, the anger.

"Hiro, please. You have to know that I….I'm sorry."

Hiro froze near the doorway, his back was turned. His posture was tense. Tadashi expected Hiro to whirl around and start to yell, but he didn't do either.

Hiro asked, "Sorry that you said it, or sorry because you were wrong?" Tadashi hated himself for not being able to answer him, he didn't want to even attempt to excuse his actions. This was on him.

Hiro was about to step out, but he froze once more and then turned back to Tadashi.

"We don't have time to do this now, Tadashi." Hiro sighed once more, "After we stop Callaghan, then we can talk about it, alright?"

Before Tadashi could say anything more Hiro turned back away and walked ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time on DCoE...
> 
> Tadashi kicked at air. It took almost all of them to hold him back.
> 
> "No! Let me go!" Tadashi tried to fight harder against them. "I can't lose him!"


	7. Chapter 7

Krei raised his glass of champagne in the air. "This beautiful new campus is a combination of a lifelong dream, but none of this could be possible without a few bumps in the road. Those setbacks make us stronger and set us on the path to a bright future."

The applause of the crowd quickly shifted to screams of panic and fear.

"Set back!?" A voice suddenly boomed from the screams.

Krei looked at the people running away in fear and mumbled, "What?"

He turned to see a masked man and microbots coming toward him. Krei attempted to escape, but he was ensnared by the bots. The microbots brought him closer to the masked man. The mask moved up from the man's face and it was a face of a ghost.

"Was my daughter a setback?" Callaghan hissed.

"Callaghan?" Despite the confusion Krei knew that his life was in danger. "Your daughter….that was an accident. I-"

"No!" Callaghan interrupted. "You knew it was unsafe. My daughter is gone because of your arrogance."

Callaghan raised his hand upwards toward the sky. Three pieces of a machine were being brought up to the sky. Krei recognized what it was all too well.

Krei panicked. "What are you doing!?"

Callaghan looked back to Krei with eyes colder than anything he had ever seen before. "You took everything from me when you sent Abigail into that machine. Now I'm taking everything from you."

The three pieces clicked into place and the portal was activated and it hungrily began to devour everything in its path.

Krei could only watch as everything began to crumble and be sucked into the portal. "No, no, no! You can't!"

"You're going to watch everything you've built disappear, then it's your turn." Callaghan growled. He didn't just want Krei dead. He wanted to destroy him.

"Professor Callaghan!"

The two turned around to see as a robot and six suited people arrive at the scene. Callaghan recognized all of them, except the one in the purple suit.

The purple suited one pulled off his helmet. It was Tadashi's younger brother, Hiro.

Hiro pulled off his helmet so they would be talking to each other's faces, and not a helmet or a mask.

"Let him go." Hiro's voice held authority. He pointed to the destruction around them. "Is this what Abigail would've wanted?"

Callaghan didn't want to hear it. "Abigail is gone!"

"This won't change anything. Trust me…" Hiro looked at Tadashi with the corner of his eye. "…I know."

Older Hiro didn't need to tell him that Tadashi would've died for no reason because of Callaghan, or how he would've reacted if it did happen. Hiro already knew in his heart what he would've done. And he knew that Older Hiro had lived through it and if meeting him meant anything it was that in the end they were all still human and they made mistakes. Hiro knew things that he wasn't meant to know and because of that when it came to Callaghan he understood. It wasn't sympathy he was expressing to Callaghan, it was empathy. Callaghan could see it and his expression softened.

Tadashi couldn't help but stare confusedly at Hiro. What did Hiro mean? How could he have known? Tadashi had no idea.

"Listen to the kid, Callaghan. Please, let me go. I'll give you anything you want." If Krei had kept quiet then Hiro may have gotten through to Callaghan.

Callaghan's sober expression morphed back into pure rage. "I want my daughter back!" Callaghan flicked the mask back down onto his face and without a spare moment he sent a wave of microbots to attack the team.

Without even thinking about it Tadashi instantly tackled Hiro out of harm's way to their left as the others dived to the right.

"Are you okay?" Tadashi asked.

Hiro pushed him off and threw his helmet back on. "I'm fine!" Hiro snapped as he ran toward Baymax. Once Hiro was on, Baymax zoomed off toward Callaghan. "Get the mask!" Hiro called out to the others.

Tadashi groaned under his breath. He knew Hiro was mad, he had every right to be, but this was serious. With all the destruction and danger that surrounded them he couldn't just let Hiro run in head first without thinking. He and team tried that already once and it didn't work.

Hiro attempted to grab the mask from Callaghan, but Callaghan easily dodged and used the microbots to grab Baymax. He threw the pair and whilst Baymax hit a wall, Hiro went flying through a glass window. Baymax tried to move, but the microbots grabbed hold of him again and threw him back toward the ground.

"Hiro! Baymax!"

As Callaghan turned his head back around he realised a massive piece of cement debris came flying toward him. He barely managed to move away in time. Tadashi's intention wasn't to try and kill him, it was merely to distract him. He couldn't see Hiro anywhere.

They all sprang into action. Fred leapt at him and tried to breathe fire at him, but Callaghan shielded himself.

Hiro felt the ground begin to crumble and be pulled upwards. The gravitational pull of the portal began to pull him and everything around him toward it. Hiro held on to the nearest thing he could find, and luckily for him a pipe was hanging from a rooted part of the building.

Gogo skated down and zoomed toward Callaghan. She dodged the microbots and attempted to throw her disk as she skated, but Callaghan predicted her moves and used the microbots to trip her up and he trapped her in a sphere of microbots.

Fred tried to fight back against the microbots. He leapt and breathed fire, but they grabbed a hold of him and slammed him against the wall. Fred tried to cling to wall, but as the microbots pulled him forward, Fred pulled off a piece of metal from the wall. The microbots constricted his arms and legs and he couldn't move.

Wasabi sliced at the microbots with his plasma blades, but the microbots rolled under the ground and they began push the ground beneath him. The next thing Wasabi knew he was being pushed against by both sides. Wasabi tried to push back and if he stopped then knew he would be crushed.

Honey Lemon was trying to stop the microbots as she threw her chemical spheres, but the microbots were being too viciously used that her chemicals began to become almost useless as they sliced through the colourful goo. Before they could strike her down, Honey Lemon quickly shielded herself by dropping two pink spheres with a pink chemical mix. It created a pink dome around her. The microbots continuously stabbed at her pink dome and began to pierce through it.

Tadashi was the last one standing and Callaghan knew that. Tadashi dodged and grabbed think pieces of cement for both a shield and weapon. He saw a stray wall lying on the ground and he did the first thing that he thought of. Tadashi ran and jumped out of the way of the microbots. He made it to the broken wall. He picked it up, he could feel the weight, but the suit's ability began to kick in and he felt as if he was getting instantly stronger. He swung around with the wall to gain momentum and threw it at Callaghan. He wasn't trying to kill him, Tadashi never had that thought cross his mind, he only wanted to distract him long enough to come up with a real plan.

Tadashi looked around and heard the continuous yells of his friends through the communication systems. They were all trapped. Baymax was still pinned down as well. There was nothing he could do. Suddenly he spotted a little purple figure in the midst of the destruction around the portal.

The pipe that Hiro held on to finally gave way and Hiro was lucky to yet again grab on to something that wasn't being pulled into the portal's suction. He grabbed on to a stray cable line and held on for dear life.

"Hiro!" Tadashi exclaimed to himself, but he was then brought back to reality as he realised that Callaghan just moved out of the way in time of the wall and it didn't break his concentration with the microbots like he had hoped. It only angered Callaghan more. The microbots flew toward Tadashi and they slammed into him. Tadashi quickly rolled to his left and right as the microbots attempted to finish him. Tadashi got back unto his feet and the microbots came at him with the same wall that he had thrown at Callaghan.

Tadashi's feet grinded against the ground as the force of the microbots pushing against the remains of the wall. The next thing Tadashi knew he was pushed against the side of the building. He was stuck. If he moved his arms then the wall could squish him like a bug and if he didn't do something soon than the suit would lose its durability. Tadashi's hand slipped for a moment and his head was thrown back to the wall. Luckily, Tadashi managed to regain a firm stance. He remained unharmed thanks to his helmet, but the helmet's faceguard had two large cracks.

* * *

All Hiro could hear was the yelling of his friends and that they were saying that there was no way out. Hiro looked down to see everyone trapped. Hiro could vaguely see Tadashi struggling against the microbots as he was threatened to be crushed by the broken wall. He had to think of something and fast! It was then that something caught his eyes.

Two microbots hit the front of his helmet. He noticed that along with the remains of the building, a few stray microbots were being sucked into the portal. He looked toward the portal and really paid attention to how the motionless microbots vanished within it.

"That's it!" The answer was right in front of him. "I know how to beat them!" With his free hand he activated his communicator. How to stop Callaghan was clear to him, but the team needed to be freed first. And there was only one thing that resonated with him in the situation, and that was Tadashi's advice when he first came up with the idea of the microbots. "Listen up. Use those big brains of yours and think your way around the problem. Look for a new angle!"

If the situation was different, Tadashi would've snickered at the repeat of his advice, but now wasn't the time for that. Hiro was right. They were all smart. They needed to all look for a new angle.

Wasabi knew that he couldn't go left or right, so he decided with option c. He went down. He slammed his plasma blades beneath him and got out. He let out a shout of victory.

Honey Lemon tapped a few buttons and created two orange chemical spheres. She waited until the microbots tried to pierce through again and the moment it did she slammed the two spheres together against them and it created an orange sticky substance. She was swiftly pulled out from her pink prison.

"I can't go any further!" Fred yelled. He continued to struggle, but it was then that he realised something. "Wait a second. It's a suit." Fred wanted to laugh as he pulled his arms out and looked out from the suits head. He saw a piece of metal lying in front of him. An idea immediately struck him, "Hello, sign. Care to go for a little spin?" Just like his mascot job, he spun them like there wasn't any tomorrow. He freed himself from the microbot restraints and triumphantly threw the scrap metal into a pile of microbots.

Gogo took out her gum and stuck it to the side of her helmet. She pulled down her faceguard as she retracted her stray disk back to her arm. She continuously skated in a perfect circle and she began to pick up momentum. The speed and friction made the microbots burning hot and she cut the microbot ball in half and she landed out of it. She was free.

Tadashi figured out that he could use the back wall and the wall the threatened to crush him to his advantage. He lifted a leg against the wall for extra support. It was time for his super-strength suit to truly shine. He stretched his arms as high as they could go and he pushed both forward, but as he pushed more forward he began to push it more on an angle. The suit was on its full power as Tadashi started to push the wall down. It was done with a swift blow and the microbots were crushed beneath the wall.

Tadashi tried to pull up the faceguard, but it was jammed. He grunted and pulled off his helmet. The cracks made it hard to see. Tadashi looked up and his eyes frantically scanned for his brother. He spotted him. He had to get to higher ground.

"Baymax!" Hiro tried to call for his robot companion. A piece of stray metal hit the side of Hiro's shoulder before going into the portal. It hurt but Hiro did his best to try and ignore the pain, but he definitely knew that it would leave a nasty bruise.

Baymax struggled against the bots when he used his cameras to notice Hiro trying to hold on to a loose cable.

"Hiro." As Baymax was seemingly devoured by the mass of microbots, but suddenly his rocket fist blew right past them and created a path for him to fly out and escape. Hiro saw and couldn't help but smile at how impressive that looked.

Hiro let go of the cable and was caught by Baymax and he landed in the place of his magnetic pads on Baymax's back.

All Callaghan could do was stare as Hiro flew away from the portal on Baymax.

Krei gleefully exclaimed, "I love that robot!"

Callaghan commanded the microbots and he pinned Krei to a wall and bent the metal around him so he couldn't move anywhere.

Hiro narrowed his eyes and looked around. He spotted the others making their way back up to higher ground, but one person was missing.

"Baymax, let's take a quick look down there."

Baymax flew down and Hiro frantically leapt off as he saw Tadashi's stray helmet lying on the ground. He picked up the helmet, it had two large cracks over the faceguard. Hiro looked around. He only took his eyes away from the scene for only two minutes and Tadashi had just vanished. Where was Tadashi? Hiro spotted the broken wall that Tadashi fought the microbots against. It was lying against the ground.

Before he could panic he only then realised that the microbots had thrown the broken pieces of a pillar toward him. He had no time to react, but the next thing he knew he was taken down to the side.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed!? You have to be more careful!"

Hiro opened his eyes to see Tadashi hovering over him. He more relieved that Tadashi wasn't under the wall than thankful that Tadashi had just saved him. Suddenly another large piece of from a pillar started flying toward Tadashi's blind spot and Hiro reacted instantly by leaping up and tackling Tadashi out of the way.

Hiro rolled his eyes as he got back up unto his feet, "Says the guy that almost crushed to death!" Hiro pointed to the wall on the ground. "And why did you take your helmet off!? I thought you were hurt or worse!"

Tadashi groaned and sat back up and pointed at the portal, "Says the kid that almost got sucked into that giant portal." Tadashi's chest heaved. "You have that big brain, but you obviously don't use it enough if you just run at Callaghan without even thinking."

Hiro humourlessly snickered, "Well that's pretty rich coming from you. Maybe it's a family trait!"

Before the two could continue arguing they were tackled out of the way of yet another piece of debris by Baymax. The pair was left stunned for a moment as Baymax warned,

"I ask that you both exercise more caution in this kind of zone of danger."

Hiro squirmed out of Baymax's arms. He was right. Hiro nodded, "Right." He climbed back onto Baymax, but before he could fly off Tadashi grabbed on to his arm.

"I'm an idiot."

Yes, Hiro was scared for a split second that Tadashi was gone, but it didn't mean that this was the right time for Tadashi to start this conversation.

Hiro tried to pull his arm back, but Tadashi only tightened his grip. "Tadashi, I said we would talk about it later." Hiro snapped.

"I'm one gigantic massive idiot!" Tadashi gently pulled Hiro back down off of Baymax. Tadashi let go of Hiro's arm and sighed soberly, "Look at us. We're already fighting again."

Hiro was left slightly shocked. Where was he going with this? Tadashi looked Hiro directly in his eyes as he began something that came out sounding like a rant.

"What I did was foolish and irrational. I'm the adult and I let myself be blinded. Yes, Callaghan was my professor, but you're my little brother. And I know there is nothing I can do to take back what I said, but you have to know that I never meant any of it. I am sorry because I was wrong and I am sorry because I lied to you. I don't want you to think for a second that I blame you for anything that has happened."

Hiro was silent as Tadashi continued his rant, "I only said that because I wanted to hurt you because in my own dumb way I thought you were trying to hurt me, but you were just trying to protect me and I'm so stupid because I didn't see that before and if I had just listened to you to begin with than none of this would be happening. If anyone is to blame for this, it's me."

_No it's not. It's Callaghan's._  But Hiro didn't say it out loud because he knew that Tadashi could read it from his eyes.

Tadashi put his hands on Hiro's shoulders and kneeled down to be at eye level with Hiro. "I don't expect you to forgive me, but please don't go running into this without a plan. Callaghan is so blinded by his revenge and he doesn't care about who he hurts or kills in the process. I can't lose you!"

Hiro was silent as he just stared at Tadashi. Fear. There was fear his brother's eyes and that's how he knew that Tadashi wasn't lying. Hiro could only recall a vague memory from when he had seen the same fear in Tadashi's eyes, but the memory was so faded he couldn't remember what had happened or why. Hiro slowly moved away from Tadashi's grip and climbed back on top Baymax.

Tadashi was crestfallen at the response and looked away.  _I should've known that he probably thinks I'm lying. I deserve that._

"You know, you are right about one thing…" Tadashi silently gasped as he looked back to see Hiro extending out his hand toward him. "You are a big idiot." Hiro gave him a lopsided grin. "And just so you know, I actually do have a plan."

Tadashi wanted to smile, but he instead grabbed unto Hiro's hand. Whilst they still had to talk out a few more things, at least they were at an understanding. The two flew back on Baymax to higher ground. Tadashi climbed off and the team made it up there a few moments after.

* * *

Hiro began to tell them immediately, "Ok, new plan. Forget the mask. Take out the bots, they'll get sucked up into the portal."

Wasabi grinned, "Now that sounds like a plan!" He activated his plasma blades so they were ready to spring into action.

"Honey. Fred. Can you give us some cover?" Everyone was shocked that Hiro was such a natural born leader, but no one objected to it.

Fred snorted, "Like you have to ask."

Honey Lemon smiled as she pressed a few buttons on her chemical purse and three blue orbs came out. "Let's do this, Freddy!" She tossed the three blue chemical orbs in the air as Fred shot out his fire toward it.

"Smokescreen!" Fred shouted out his 'move' as it created a blue smokescreen mist that surrounded the area.

"Ok, so we're dealing with the microbots?" Tadashi tried to clarify.

"You guys are. I'm the distraction." Hiro winked and smirked as Baymax shot up toward the sky before Tadashi could protest.

Callaghan was forced to go higher up away from the blue haze that surrounded him. Callaghan saw Baymax and Hiro flying toward him. He commanded the microbots to attack. Baymax kept flying forward as he spun and dodged the incoming microbots.

"Ready and…." They got closer to the portal. "Dive!" Hiro yelled. Baymax punched through them and the microbots were pulled into the portal. Hiro and Baymax went on to keep Callaghan occupied as the others began to destroy the microbots below them under the blue smokescreen.

Wasabi began to run around until he found himself somewhat floating for a moment with every step that eventually turned into every leap.

"Woah. Gravity is getting a little weird here guys." An idea then dawned itself in Wasabi's mind. "Wait, let's use this!" He jumped and kicked off a wall as he spun and slashed through the microbots. It was almost like an elegant dance as he sliced through them.

Gogo skated around and used her two front disks to carve her way up the microbot 'pillar'.

Fred got a hold of two pieces of scrap metal and set them on fire as he spun them around in different ways to destroy the microbots. Fred jumped around as he expertly spun the flamed metal signs. Fred sounded like he was having lots of fun.

Honey Lemon pressed multiple buttons on the chemical purse when four green orbs popped out. She made sure that the others were clear from where she was when she threw her green chemical orbs at the microbots in front of her. She threw it at the microbots for a clear substance to spread around them. The microbots began to sizzle and look as if an invisible flame was burning them. What Honey Lemon had used was an extremely high concentrate of hydrochloric acid that burned through the microbots in seconds. She would never admit it aloud to herself, but she really did enjoy seeing the destruction.

Tadashi got a hold of any debris that was lying around and crushed the microbots. He finally found a large metal support beam and used it as a giant baseball bat. Tadashi and Gogo teamed up for a combo attack. She leapt unto to it as she used it as a ramp to shoot toward a target pillar with more momentum. She carved through the pillars and Tadashi finished the job with a powerful swing. Some microbots went flying until they hit something by the force of the hit.

"Home run!" Tadashi smiled to himself.

Wasabi was boosted up by Fred's super jump as he started slashing the microbots from the top to the last on the ground. It was thanks to the lack of gravity that he landed back safety without hurting himself.

Honey Lemon joyfully bounced up by a chemical substance and quickly grabbed a chemical sphere from her purse before she planted it up in a microbot pillar. As she started to fall back down she threw her sphere and as soon as it hit her chemical purse, it exploded upon contact. It was the final blow and it was down with a beautiful pink bang.

"Now that's a chemical reaction!" Honey Lemon gleefully exclaimed as she landed back on the ground.

The group of friends couldn't help but exchange proud smiles at each other. Tadashi was the first and go to rescue Alistair Krei. He easily ripped off the metal that held him.

"Oh-Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Krei was more grateful than he had been in his entire life. If it wasn't for the 'heroes' than he knew that he wouldn't be alive, it was all thanks to them.

Wasabi helped Krei stand as he got a good look at Tadashi's face.

"Hey, aren't you the brother of Hiro Hamada?"

Tadashi almost forgot that he wasn't wearing his helmet. Gogo stepped in.

"Mr Krei, I think we should get you out of here."

Suddenly they heard the slight tremor of part of the building starting to give way due to the supporting beams being sucked into the portal.

"Look out!"

Tadashi looked up to see moderately sized piece of cement falling from above him before everything turned black.

* * *

Baymax used his new karate skills and destroyed microbots in his path under Hiro's direction. Baymax attempted to fly towards Callaghan, but Callaghan's patience had reached its highest point. He finally caught Baymax with the microbots.

"This ends now!" Callaghan raised his hands and he waited for a rush of microbots to stop the robot and the boy, but nothing came. Callaghan tried again and still there was nothing.

Hiro smirked as he cheekily remarked, "Looks like you're out of microbots."

Callaghan looked down to see Hiro was right and it only then occurred to him that whilst Hiro and Baymax were fighting him, the others must've been destroying the microbots right under his nose.

"Baymax." It was all Hiro had to say for Baymax to understand. Baymax immediately broke free. Baymax flew toward Callaghan with his fist ready to hit him. Callaghan flinched and tried to shield himself, but what he saw next was that Baymax had stopped just a few inches from his face.

Hiro and Callaghan's eyes met. Hiro shook his head at Callaghan and he began to speak.

"While I would love to punch you in the face for stealing my microbots and trying to use them for your own insane revenge plan, I won't. If anything, I kinda get it, but trust me when I say that putting yourself on this path doesn't benefit anyone. It only causes more pain." Hiro spoke as if it was from experience, but honestly what he knew was only hypothetical, but ever since meeting his other self some things stood out clearly in front of him, even if it was blind to others.

Callaghan felt a twinge of pain in his stone heart. This boy, Tadashi Hamada's brother reminded him so much of the very person he lost, his beloved daughter, Abigail.

Hiro's frown turned into a lopsided grin, "But I will be taking that." Baymax took the mask from Callaghan's face and crushed it in his fist. The microbots dropped and became useless including the ones holding up the portal. Callaghan began to fall, but he was caught by Baymax and Hiro. The portal slammed into the ground.

Hiro vaguely saw the others as Baymax dropped Callaghan as he landed. Callaghan groaned and attempted to sit up. The team and Krei were all crowded around something, but little did Hiro know that the something was someone. Hiro leapt off Baymax and gained the team's attention.

"Hiro." Honey Lemon and the others were relieved that he was alright. Hiro narrowed his eyes long enough to realise what they were crowding around. It was Tadashi.

Hiro instantly ran forward and pushed Wasabi and Fred out of the way to see his brother lying on the ground with a visible bump on the top of his head.

"Tadashi!" No. No! This couldn't be happening! He was meant to be ok! Hiro was about to grab on to Tadashi's shoulders and violently shake him awake, but Gogo held him back. No! Tadashi couldn't be gone!

"Hiro, relax. He's alive." Gogo informed.

Baymax immediately came over and scanned him. "Scan completed. Diagnosis: mild head trauma due to a blunt instrument, and a highly probable concussion. I recommend that I give a proper treatment in a more stable environment."

"S-So he's going to be alright?"

Baymax nodded and Hiro sat down in relief.

"Nothing to worry about, little dude. Tadashi just hit on the head." Fred patted Hiro on the shoulder.

Hiro sighed; Tadashi should've kept his helmet on. Baymax turned back around to draw attention toward the portal that was still on.

"It's still on?" Hiro stared wide eyed at the portal. He stood back up and moved slightly forward before he turned to Krei. "We have to shut it down."

Krei shook his head. "We can't! The containment field is failing. The portal's gonna tear itself apart."

"We need to get out of here now!" Hiro urged, but he noticed that Baymax wasn't moving from his spot. "Baymax!"

"My sensors are detecting signs of life."

Hiro gasped, "What?"

"Coming from in there." Baymax pointed toward the portal. "The life signs are female. She appears to be in hyper sleep."

Hiro put the pieces together. "Callaghan's daughter, she's still alive!"

Callaghan immediately looked toward the portal. "Abigail." He mumbled.

Hiro turned back to see Wasabi and Fred helping to hold Tadashi up. Suddenly he remembered the night of the showcase. He remembered what Tadashi said moments before he prepared to run into the burning building. Hiro never understood what must've been going through Tadashi's head until that moment. Hiro climbed unto Baymax. "Let's go get her."

Krei's eyes widened at the insane notion. "The portal is destabilizing, you'll never make it!"

Hiro looked back to Krei and the team, but more importantly, he looked at Tadashi.

"She's alive in there. Someone has to help."

Hiro clicked himself into place. "What do you say, buddy?"

Baymax turned his head toward Hiro, "Flying makes me a better healthcare companion."

Hiro nodded and smiled and with that the two took off up while doing a loop then the two vanished into the portal.

Only seconds after Hiro and Baymax vanished into the portal, they all suddenly heard Tadashi groan as he began to stir back into consciousness. The others simultaneously thought the same thing in that moment.

_Oh-no_

* * *

Hiro felt like he should've known before, but the dimensional transporter that his other self had modified was the same as the one he had just flown into. He saw how colourful the dimension was around him, but it was more distorted than the one he had previously been in, but regardless it was just as amazing.

Baymax continued to fly throw the dimension.

"Careful, there's Krei Tech debris everywhere." Hiro stated. Baymax flew deeper and more debris became present.

Baymax swerved and spun to dodge the debris. Hiro saw a massive piece of glass debris in front of him. "Look out!" Hiro jumped off of Baymax and ran up through the debris. A moment longer and both he and Baymax could've gotten hurt. Hiro leapt through the nearest hole and Baymax immediately caught Hiro in his arms. Hiro sighed in relief and caught his breath.

"I have located the patient."

Hiro looked up to see a lone pod in the distance.

"Hurry!" Hiro clicked back into place as Baymax turned on his full thrusters and zoomed off closer to the pod. Baymax instantly stopped as they made it to the pod. Hiro rubbed the layer of frost that covered the pod. He saw a woman inside. Hiro could clearly see that she was breathing. She was alive.

* * *

"Tadashi, are you feeling alright?" Wasabi asked. Tadashi was now completely awake.

"Yeah." Truthfully, his head hurt a lot. He groaned as Wasabi helped him to stand. "What happened?"

"You got hit on the head by that." Fred pointed toward the stray piece of debris. Tadashi blinked a couple of times as he gave Wasabi a small hand signal to let him stand on his own. He felt the lump on his head, "I should've kept the helmet on." Tadashi joked, but suddenly he saw Callaghan whose eyes were glued to the portal.

"Callaghan? What's going on? Why is the portal still active?"

Before anyone could answer, he looked around and noticed who was missing.

"Where's Hiro?"

They exchanged looks before it was silently decided that Honey Lemon did the explaining of how Baymax detected that Callaghan's daughter was alive and how Hiro went in to save her. And a few moments later they got the reaction they were expecting.

"YOU LET HIM, WHAT!?"

After shouting more incoherent phrases, Tadashi tried getting into the portal. The team leapt at Tadashi as they attempted to restrain him. Tadashi kicked at air.

"No! Let me go!" Tadashi tried to fight harder against them. "I can't lose him!"

Having a super strength suit did not help the situation, especially during his distress he accidently threw Fred in the process of trying to break free from the others. He stopped upon hearing Fred fly in the air whilst yelling and his landing.

"Fred, I am so sorry!" He shouted out to him.

"I'm ok!" Fred called back. "Nothing can keep the Fredzilla down!" Fred laughed it off as he made his way back. The team could tell from his smile that Fred enjoyed being thrown only because it was by Tadashi's super strength and he got to witness it up close.

Suddenly Tadashi felt a sharp sting across his cheek. Gogo had slapped him.

Gogo then shook him by his shoulders, "Tadashi Hamada, you get a hold of yourself right now or so help me I will knock you out again myself!"

Tadashi held his cheek. "You want me to calm down? My little brother just went into a portal that is going to destroy itself any second now. AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN!?"

Gogo's expression remained stoic and she gently put a hand on his shoulder. "Hiro will come out of there, and he will come out alive and fully intact. We trust him to be able to do this, if we didn't we wouldn't have let him go."

Tadashi did trust Hiro, but the possibility of losing Hiro was growing higher and higher. Tadashi didn't know how much more he could take.

"Besides, he didn't go in there alone. He has Baymax." Honey Lemon added optimistically.

Tadashi wanted to feel some degree of relief, but he still felt none. He ran his hands through his hair as he grunted with frustration. All he could do was wait and hope that Hiro would come out. He had never felt more useless. He looked to Callaghan. He caused this.

Tadashi began to walk toward him. Honey Lemon asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to have a word with my professor."

The team and Krei left Tadashi to go over to talk to Callaghan alone, but the team watched from a distance. Callaghan looked toward Tadashi then his eyes returned to the portal.

"Mr Hamada." He greeted. It was as if it were normal like nothing had changed. Tadashi crouched down beside him. It was as if the tension around them was getting stronger by the moment. So much had happened.

"You did all this just to find out she's alive." Tadashi stated it as a fact.

Callaghan flinched and he rushed to try and justify himself, "None of this would've happened if Krei had just listened to me. He never got punished for sacrificing my daughter to his failed experiment. Alistair Krei deserved to be punished for his mistake."

"I could say the same about you." Tadashi's tone of voice became somewhat dark, which surprised Callaghan. He turned his head to his former student.

"I'm going to be blunt with you, professor." Tadashi breathed out deeply. "When Hiro gets your daughter out, my question for you is, can you live with her knowing of what you've done? What you've become?"

Callaghan stared in slight fear, but mostly shock. He looked around the devastation he had caused. Callaghan then reluctantly shook his head. "You say it like you're completely sure that they'll come out. I'm sorry to say that I don't share the blind faith you have, Mr Hamada." Callaghan didn't want to get his hopes up just for them to be shot down, not after everything.

Tadashi tensed at the words. His hand clenched in the dirt beneath him. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

"It's better to have hope than to be consumed by fear because that only leads to anger and hate."

Callaghan glared toward the portal. "So you're saying that if our places had been swapped and Krei was to blame for your brother's apparent death that you would be alright with that?"

Tadashi shook his head. "No, but I would never do what you have done in the name of revenge."

Callaghan sighed. "I wouldn't expect you to understand. You haven't been what I've been through. Abigail was all I had left. After her mother died it was just me and her. The portal took her away from me and all because Krei wasn't ready to accept that the transporter wasn't ready for human trials. It was because of Krei's arrogance."

Tadashi finally snapped back. Callaghan wanted to talk about arrogance? "And yet, now I could lose my brother due to yours."

Callaghan stared back at Tadashi in silence. Callaghan could see the anger in Tadashi's eyes, maybe they weren't so different after all, even if Tadashi didn't realise it yet.

Tadashi stood back up and the two silently ended the conversation. Coincidentally enough the portal's power became more intense. It was beginning to completely tear itself apart. Tadashi and Callaghan raised their arms as shields against the raging wind that began to whirl around them.

Fred grabbed Callaghan while Wasabi grabbed onto Tadashi.

"We need to get behind cover now!" Gogo yelled.

Tadashi and Callaghan had to be pulled as they were reluctantly were pulled away behind a rock. Tadashi began to mentally pray to any gods that existed for Hiro to come out safe.

* * *

"C'mon, let's get her home." Hiro climbed onto the pod. "I'll guide you out of here. Let's go!"

Baymax pushed the pod as he turned his thrusters back on. Hiro knew he had to concentrate to get them out. There was Krei Tech debris as far as he could see. Hiro barked all sorts of twists and turns and they avoided the debris.

"Ok, level off." Hiro then saw a piece of debris with a large hole. Hiro instantly knew that they could easily go through. "Easy."

And with that they were out of the field of debris. Hiro cheered as he saw the clear path back out of the portal. The sight flicked a switch in Hiro's mind. It resonated with the memory of what Older Hiro last said to him before they parted ways.

_"Just remember when you see that everything is clear, sometimes it's good to duck down. You never know what could come flying at you."_

Hiro didn't understand it, but maybe this is what his other self was talking about.  _Maybe…_

* * *

The wind whirled around them as the portal finally tore itself apart. Gogo kept a grounding hand on his shoulder to keep him from running in. Tadashi shut his eyes from the wind and mentally chanted to himself.

_Please come out. Please come out. Please come out._

Tadashi almost felt his heart stop as he heard something like a canon shoot as the portal destroyed itself.

The wind around them died as soon as the second sound was heard. Tadashi immediately leapt over the rock and frantically looked around to see nothing. Hiro was nowhere to be seen.

"No." Tadashi breathed out and fell down to his knees. His head hung low toward the ground. He silently cursed at himself. It was his duty as a big brother to keep Hiro out of trouble. After the two lost their parents, Tadashi had said to himself that no matter what that he would protect Hiro and support him in any way that he could. But he couldn't even keep his brother safe. He failed him. He failed his parents.

Tadashi squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to open his eyes back up to find himself back in his room the day of the showcase. He wanted it all to be just a really bad nightmare. There was so many things that he wished that he could change. He never would've begun to distant himself and he would've trusted his brother's word, but now it was all too late because Hiro was gone.

The others sombrely bowed their heads. Hiro was Tadashi's little brother, but he was also their friend. And to see Tadashi beginning to fall apart and knowing that there was nothing they could do about it didn't help.

Suddenly it was like the sun appeared in an age of darkness. They heard a joyful shout from a familiar voice.

"Yes! We made it! Nice flying!"

When Tadashi heard the sound it gave him more relief and happiness then words could ever explain or describe. Tadashi's head snapped back up and he searched for the source of the voice. He ran to his far left and behind a small mountain of debris he quickly spotted where the shout had come from. It was his baby brother.

"Hiro!"

Gogo was meant to have the insane speeds due to her electromagnetic disk wheels, but Tadashi definitely would've gave her a run for her money in that moment.

Hiro smiled up at Baymax. "That was awesome!"

Older Hiro's vague advice had been useful after all. If Hiro didn't tell Baymax to dive down then they would've been hit by the fast travelling piece of Krei Tech debris. Luck or not, they got out in time and they got out together. They were alright.

"He made it. Yeah!" Fred exclaimed. Hiro turned to see Fred leaping with joy as the team ran toward him with Tadashi already in the lead.

Hiro smiled upon seeing Tadashi conscious. He looked like he was fine and Hiro had never seen Tadashi run so fast. Hiro slid down from on top of the pod.

Tadashi didn't take a spare moment to try and slow down. He tried to stop immediately, but he skidded and almost slipped in the process, but Tadashi didn't care as he kneeled down to Hiro's eye level as he began looking over Hiro.

"Are you ok?"

In any other situation Hiro would've just rolled his eyes at Tadashi mother henning him, but he instead nodded with a smile.

"Are you hurt?"

Hiro nodded again.

"Then what were you thinking!?"

Hiro sighed as he prepared for a long lecture, but the next thing he knew he was in Tadashi's arms.

"You knucklehead."

Tadashi held back tears that threatened to spill over, he was just so relieved and beyond happy. Tadashi held him tight as if he expected Hiro to slip away. The embrace felt all too identical to the night of the showcase, but the difference this time was that Hiro hugged him back.

"I thought I lost you." Tadashi's voice cracked.

If Hiro needed any confirmation that Tadashi truly cared for him, then that was it. The five worded confession was all he needed to hear.

"Well you didn't." Hiro hugged Tadashi back.

The others made it over and smiled at the affectionate display in front of them. Honey Lemon had to put a hand on Fred's shoulder so he didn't try to join in. It had to be a good minute before Hiro decided to say anything.

"Tadashi, can you let me go now?" Hiro began squirming.

Tadashi gave a watery chuckle, "No, I'm not ever letting you go again." Tadashi joked.

"That's nice, bro. But you're kinda crushing me." Hiro tried to get another breath of air. "You have a super strength suit, remember?" Hiro squeaked.

Tadashi reluctantly, but quickly let go. "Right. Sorry." Hiro caught his breath before he smiled and looked back through the glass of the pod. The woman inside, Abigail, was still breathing. It was going to be all ok.

* * *

The others had no doubt that the real authorities would arrive soon. Callaghan stood by the pod and he placed his hand over the glass. Abigail was alive. They let Callaghan have his moment because they knew that he probably wouldn't get a chance like that again anytime soon. They could tell from his expression that regret began to seep into his soul.

"You can't say a word about who we are." Tadashi told Krei.

"Why? You all saved me and even Abigail!" Krei stated. "You deserved to be recognized for what you did here today."

Tadashi shook his head. "That's not why we did it." If Tadashi had to think back to how it all started then it would've reminded him what a mess it all became.

The others stepped in and eventually persuaded Krei after Fred had his whole speech on superhero secret identities. As Fred kept on with his rant, Hiro noticed as Tadashi walked over to Callaghan.

Callaghan still had his hand against the glass that kept the barrier between him and his daughter.

"What have I done?" Callaghan mumbled in defeat.

Tadashi kept a neutral expression. "Enjoy this while it lasts. I just hope you're ready to face the consequences of your actions."

Callaghan grimaced. He knew that Tadashi was right.

The team flew off with Baymax and within minutes many policemen and paramedics came rushing toward to the scene. They watched from a skyscraper from afar.

Abigail was extracted from the pod and rushed away from the paramedics while Callaghan was pushed into a police car. They turned away once both Abigail and her father were whisked away in two different directions.

Wasabi was the first to ask the all-important question. "Now what do we do?"

Hiro shrugged and remarked, "Well for now I would say that's: mission accomplished."

* * *

The whole ordeal had been exhilarating yet tiring at the same time. They stayed and somewhat celebrated at Fred's until the adrenaline finally faded as their exhaustion began to set. It was also getting late. They all returned home, but not as the same people they once were.

When the two brothers returned home, Baymax was on his left at his charging dock while the two brothers sat on Hiro's bed together in their pyjamas just talked. Tadashi decided to put everything out in the open and he discussed what happened at the island. Hiro stayed silent the whole time. He didn't make any comments. Tadashi didn't know whether or not he should be worried about it. However, that didn't stop Tadashi as he continued on to talk about what happened before and after he had been knocked out by the stray piece of falling debris. Tadashi spoke about when he had just found out that Hiro was in the portal.

It was only then that Hiro finally said something. "Wait a second, you threw Fred?" After a whole time of silence and that's what Hiro finally said?

Tadashi nervously laughed as he thought that maybe he shouldn't have mentioned that. "It was an accident."

Hiro snorted and he began laughing.

Tadashi pouted and he tried to defend himself, "I was worried about you."

Hiro laughed harder as he teased, "So you decided to throw Fred?"

Tadashi suddenly began smirking as he grabbed and hung Hiro's legs over his shoulders. It was as if Hiro was a rag doll. "Super strength suit or not, I'm still stronger than you. You might want to remember that next time you make fun of your big brother." Tadashi playfully stated.

"Put me down!"

Tadashi smugly shook his head as he swung Hiro around on his shoulders. "Nope."

After a few moments, Tadashi flopped Hiro back unto the bed. Hiro laughed and shook his head.

Tadashi sat back on the bed and the amusement on his face shifted to a serious expression.

"I'm sorry."

Hiro knew exactly what Tadashi was talking about. "Tadashi, after everything that's happened today, do you really think I would've been able to stay mad?"

Tadashi stared. _Yes._

Hiro sighed again, "I know what you did wasn't ok. That fight was big, but-"

"No, it's not just about the fight." Tadashi interrupted. "Ever since I thought Callaghan died I haven't been like myself. I've been distant and I didn't trust you when I should have."

Hiro frowned. It was as if Tadashi was begging him to be mad, but Hiro couldn't bring himself to do it.

"I know, but I just don't care, not anymore at least."

Tadashi blinked at Hiro, "So you're not mad?"

"I'm not mad." Hiro just couldn't do it. And it wasn't just because of what his other self had told him, but rather what he warned. Tadashi may have not perished in the fire, but he thought he had lost him twice in one day and he would rather not experience it for real. What Tadashi said and did was wrong, but he was sorry and that much was proved to him many times during that day. And for Hiro that was enough to forgive him.

Tadashi smiled for a brief moment before he changed the subject, "Enough about what happened to me, what happened with you?"

Hiro immediately went to talk about what the portal looked like from within and what happened after he and Baymax found Abigail. Hiro spoke with a smile.

"Then we made it out, luckily just in time too."

"Sounds incredible, but how did you and Baymax manage to dodge everything? The debris would've gotten close."

The debris did get close, but Hiro was warned about it. Hiro didn't know whether or not to tell Tadashi about Older Hiro. Was it something he really wanted Tadashi to know?

"Hiro?"

Hiro snapped out of his thoughts. "Huh?"

"You spaced out for a sec, are you feeling ok?"

Hiro looked at Tadashi's concerned expression. If he was going to tell him, now was the opportunity. But he made his decision.  _No._

"I should be asking you the same question, you're the one with the concussion." Hiro chose not to tell him. It was his secret burden. Tadashi didn't need to know that he wasn't meant to be alive. He was alive and that's all Hiro really cared about.

Tadashi rolled his eyes, "Baymax already told me when we were back at Fred's that I would be fine and rest was recommended." Tadashi sarcastically added, "I obviously didn't program him to know a thing or two about this stuff."

Hiro rolled his eyes and huffed out a breath of laughter he then against his choice he yawned.

"We ought to get some rest."

Hiro didn't object as he slowly nodded as he crawled under his covers. Tadashi turned off the light.

"Move over." Tadashi nudged at Hiro.

Hiro rolled his eyes with a groan, but he made some room as Tadashi squeezed himself in. It wasn't that they did it often, Hiro definitely would not allow that with his teenaged pride, but they both needed the comfort. He threw his arm over Hiro.

"I'm glad you're ok, bonehead."

Hiro discretely nuzzled closer to Tadashi. "I'm glad I'm ok too."

Tadashi softly kicked Hiro and smiled as he shut his eyes. "Goodnight, Hiro."

"Goodnight….nerd."

Tadashi smiled, but didn't say anything back. That must've been proof alone that Tadashi was just happy to have Hiro at home and safe.

If anything the whole final battle against Callaghan had showed the both of them what it would've been like to lose each other and they didn't like it. Neither of them could bear to lose the other. It was a fact. And Hiro's other self had prevented Hiro from truly experiencing it.

As Hiro drifted off into sleep all he could hear was Tadashi's light breathing. Hiro's final thoughts were of Older Hiro.

_Thank you._

* * *

_**One week later…..** _

"Tadashi. Hiro. You're going to be late!"

"We're coming!" Hiro called back to Aunt Cass and he skipped down the steps. "Tadashi c'mon!"

Hiro pulled over his new SFIT hoodie and threw on his backpack with Baymax's portable charger inside (it was Hiro's idea) when he overheard the television.

" _A massive clean-up continues today at the headquarters of Krei Tech Industries. Reports are still flooding in about a group of unidentified individuals who prevented what could've been a major catastrophe. The whole city of San Fransokyo is asking, who are these heroes and where are they now?"_

Hiro playfully grinned at the broadcast. Tadashi came down from their room and peeked over at the television.

"That has to be the twentieth broadcast about Krei Tech and the 'unidentified individuals' this week." Tadashi placed his beloved 'San Fransokyo Ninjas' hat on his head.

"Well what can I say big brother, we're famous without being famous." Hiro cheekily remarked.

Tadashi smiled and ruffled Hiro's hair. "C'mon, the others would be waiting."

Hiro rolled his eyes with a smile and he followed his brother out. It was hard to believe that only a week ago was the event that changed everything for them. They greeted the others down at the café.

Aunt Cass said goodbye to her nephews as they walked off with the others. Fred went on about new features that his supersuit could have added on, all the ideas being close to undoable or unthinkable. Hiro was actually willing to accept the challenge. On the walk to SFIT, Fred and Hiro were in deep conversation about it.

As Honey Lemon and Wasabi were having a conversation of their own, Gogo noticed trailing along at the back of the group with a frown.

Gogo gently nudged Tadashi, "What's on your mind, genius?"

Tadashi blinked out of his thoughts he silently sighed. "Don't you think they should calm down with the hero talk? We stopped Callaghan. We finished what we set out to do, so shouldn't that be the end of it?"

Was Tadashi really passing up the opportunity to help people? No. Gogo knew what he was really saying behind those words.

Gogo blew a bubble of gum and popped it. "You're worried about Hiro." It was a statement.

Tadashi frowned, "Is it that obvious?"

Gogo nodded. Wasabi and Honey Lemon overheard the conversation. It was lucky for them that Fred and Hiro seemed to be in their own world and chattered away as their pace quickened and the other's slowed down.

"We didn't set out to become heroes, but now look at where we are." They all looked to Honey Lemon.

Wasabi nodded and added, "She was a point and besides if you're really worried just remember that there's all of us and Baymax that'll also keep an eye out for the little man as well as you."

Honey Lemon smiled. "We're in this together and I think that we wouldn't be able to convince Fred to abandon his new hero persona if we tried."

Tadashi silently smiled, but he still had his concerns. Even if they didn't show it the team had made up their minds about continuing the super hero gig a long time ago, and honestly so did Tadashi.

"If Hiro wants to stay being a super hero then it's still up to me to keep him out of trouble." That was Tadashi's way of informing them of his decision. Tadashi thought that he had lost Hiro once and he wasn't planning on that happening again. It was as clearer than any crystal that Tadashi treasured Hiro above anything or anyone. Hiro was his only brother and he was all Tadashi really had left from his parents. Tadashi was determined to protect him, whether he was still a hero or not.

* * *

Hiro was lounging around in Tadashi's office as he fiddled around with broken bot, which Hiro had insisted that he was fixing it just for fun and that it wasn't for a bot fight.

Tadashi was starting his written essay about the history of robotics. It wasn't due until another few weeks, but Tadashi wanted to get a head start.

The pair were talking were having a conversation from a far about seemingly random things.

As Hiro was absentmindedly fixing the bot he accidently turned it on, and it almost electric shocked him, but he quickly turned it back off and immediately dropped the bot.

"Are you ok?" Tadashi turned away from the computer screen.

Hiro nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine." Hiro stood up and gave a bit of stretch. "Well I've been cooped up for too long. I'm going to go for a walk."

Tadashi nodded, "Remember that we're going soon to that sushi restaurant that Wasabi likes for lunch so don't get too caught up in anything."

Hiro shrugged it off, "Yeah, yeah."

"Wait!"

Hiro turned back toward Tadashi, "What?"

"Take Baymax with you. He could probably use the fresh air too."

Baymax was a robot so there wasn't much logic behind the statement. In all honesty, Tadashi just didn't want Hiro wandering off alone even if it was still on the university grounds. It had been a week since the events at Krei Tech, but Tadashi was still in 'extremely overprotective mode'. Hiro noticed despite Tadashi trying to be discrete about it, and whilst it annoyed him, Hiro just went along with it knowing that with time it would die back down to his regular protective attitude.

Hiro yelled out, "Ow."

Baymax inflated from his charging dock across the room.

Tadashi half expected Baymax to run through his whole beginning script, but he instead said, "Hiro, what seems to be the trouble? Have you been injured?"

Hiro didn't think much of it, "No, I'm fine. We're going for a walk, c'mon."

Tadashi stared as the two left the room. He had uniquely created Baymax, but his AI was obviously advancing on its own. His programing made sure that he always had the same start up script and Tadashi knew that Hiro didn't change the script start up despite all the 'upgrades'.

It was like Baymax was becoming a person of his own, and it was more than Tadashi hoped for. It was incredible.

Tadashi glanced to out his large window. He saw how Hiro comfortably and playfully walked around outside with Baymax. A smile was brought to Tadashi's face. To have his own creation showing signs of having a self-developing AI and for his brother to help that happen seemed like two wins in one day.

* * *

Suddenly he heard and felt something like a brief gust of wind behind him. When Tadashi turned he saw some of his loose papers landing on the ground after dancing around the air. Tadashi blinked. Where had the wind come from?

Tadashi suspiciously looked around. His head cocked to the side as he saw a USB flashdrive on his desk. He had never seen it before and it most definitely wasn't on his desk before that. Tadashi curiously picked up the USB and stared at it.

He plugged it into his computer and a single video file was on it and it was labelled, 'Goodbye'.

Tadashi stared at the file, but after hovering the cursor over the file he finally clicked on the file.

The video started to play and Tadashi gasped at what he saw. It was…Hiro? But it couldn't be. The one in the video looked visibly older.

" _Hey Tadashi, it's me, Hiro." The older looking Hiro smiled, "I know your probably confused and you're wondering why I look older." The older Hiro sighed. "Well, it's a bit complicated, but I'm a Hiro from a different reality. I know it's crazy, but hear me out."_

Tadashi sat in his chair in silent shock as the Hiro in the video went on to explain how he modified a dimensional transporter to see that there were different dimensions. He explained how it was all possible.

" _And now comes to the part of why I've sent this message." Older Hiro took a deep breath. "Well, if I know me then I know that Hiro probably didn't want to tell you this, but he shouldn't have to carry this on his own. And I feel that for you to really understand is to tell you everything."_

_Older Hiro muttered to himself, but it was loud enough to be caught on camera. "Please don't get mad other me." Older Hiro then looked back into the camera as he continued, "The reason why Hiro saw things from the future was because I was transmitting my memories to him."_

_Older Hiro went on to explain how once again and that he had destroyed it. He also explained how the timelines were identical and about the parallel universes._

" _So don't worry, Hiro was never in any real harm because of it. And when I mean my memories, the first one I ever showed him was…was…"_

_Older Hiro's eyes began to get a bit glossed. He swallowed a lump in his throat and continued, "In my reality when the showcase building was on fire you ran in and never came back out. It exploded when you were still inside."_

Tadashi didn't know how to react. He just continued to watch.

_Older Hiro sniffed and held back his tears. "I shared that memory with Hiro so he could stop you, and he did." Older Hiro rubbed the water away from his eyes as he forced a smile. "I'm sorry, I guess talking about it wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be." He forced a huff of laughter._

It broke Tadashi's heart.

_Older Hiro took a deep breath. "I explained everything and why to Hiro. We met after the two of you had that fight."_

A twinge of guilt and regret pierced at Tadashi's heart as he recalled the fight.  _Never again_ , Tadashi had sworn that to himself.

_"You don't need to worry about any of this, but you have to know that there are some things that shouldn't be changed, and that's the Big Hero 6."_

Tadashi cocked his head to the side.

_Older Hiro continued, "I know that you're probably wondering what that is and it's the team. I know you, and I'm guessing that you would have your doubts. But there is always going to be risks with anything that you do, and it's whether or not if we're brave enough to take those risks. That's what defines who we are. The only reason I kept showing Hiro more visions was to ensure that the team would be created again in your dimension."_

_Older Hiro frowned. "But if I am being entirely honest, why I wanted to send you this message has nothing to do with that. While it is important, I have more selfish reasons."_

_Older Hiro sighed and stared directly into the camera, as if to stare into Tadashi's eyes. "I know that you're not my Tadashi, but you are still Tadashi." Older Hiro's eyes began to get glossy once more. "I want you to know that for a long time after you died I didn't know if I could go on. I didn't want to miss you anymore because every day just got worse and worse. And losing you has never stopped hurting. I don't think it ever will."_

Tadashi's eyes began brimming with tears as he watched the video. It broke his heart to see the older Hiro speak with such raw pain like that, even if it wasn't technically 'his' Hiro.

_Older Hiro let his tears fall as he smiled through the pain, but this time it wasn't forced, "But now, I'm ok. I've learned to live with it. A day doesn't go by where I don't miss you, but I'm really ok now. I'm happy."_

_Older Hiro wiped the tear stains from his face, but the effort was put to waste as more tears fell from his eyes. Older Hiro smiled through the tears once more as his crying began to slow down. "My only wish is that you use this second chance to do whatever makes you happy…..I just want you to be happy and to live the long life you deserved."_

_Older Hiro let more tears fall. "This is my final goodbye to you that I never got to say to my Tadashi, so if you're willing I'd like you to hear it."_

_Older Hiro was silent for a moment as if to get a response. Older Hiro took a deep breath and sighed._

" _I'll see you again, one day. But I promise it won't be until I'm old and gray. And I wish I said this one last time, but I guess that it's better late than never…" Older Hiro sniffled once more as he smiled._

" _I love you, big brother."_

The video ended with Older Hiro's watery smile paused on the screen.

Tadashi let the tears fall and they didn't stop. He had only been on the brink of tears, but when Older Hiro started to speak about losing him, Tadashi couldn't take it. His eyes were gushing out with water. He hadn't cried like that in years. He sat alone and teared up for a long time.

* * *

Tadashi suddenly heard Hiro coming down the hall and he immediately wiped away his tears. He didn't want Hiro to see him like this.

"Tadashi, you were the one that told me not to be too long yet you're the one who's going to make us lat-…." Hiro walked into the lab and stared at Tadashi. Tadashi's eyes looked puffy and red.

Tadashi blocked Hiro's view of the computer screen and nonchalantly smiled, "Hey, Hiro. Did you have a nice walk?"

Hiro looked Tadashi up and down, something was definitely wrong.

"Are you feeling ok?"

"Me? I'm fine."

Hiro blinked. He wasn't falling for it. Before Hiro could further question him, Tadashi had bridged the gap between them and enveloped Hiro in a tight hug. Hiro froze in confusion. Tadashi wasn't showing any signs of letting go.

Baymax made his way into the room. "There, there." Baymax had joined the hug. Tadashi gave a huff off laughter and he then pulled away.

Hiro looked up to his big brother with confusion. "What was that for?"

Tadashi shrugged. "Can't I hug my little brother?"

Hiro blinked again. Tadashi was acting strange.

Tadashi turned his head back to the computer screen and gasped to see that the screen was now blank and the USB had disappeared. He frowned, but then thought that maybe it was the best thing for it to vanish. He didn't really want Hiro seeing that video file.

Hiro followed Tadashi's gaze and looked toward the blank screen. "Are you looking for something?"

Tadashi blinked a few times before he shook his head. "No…It's just-"

They heard Fred yell from down the hall. "Are you guys coming or what?"

"Coming!" Hiro called back.

Tadashi nudged at Hiro's shoulder, "C'mon. We're gonna be late."

The two began to walk out and Baymax followed after them.

Hiro humourlessly rolled his eyes, "Are you sure that you're ok?...Oh-no, I'm turning into you." Hiro knew Tadashi looked like he wasn't going to budge, so he decided that he would question him about it later.

Tadashi sarcastically snickered, "I do not sound like that."

"You're right, you sound more like this.." Hiro put on a mockingly fake deep voice, "Hello my name is Tadashi, I'm a giant nerd. Are you ok, Hiro? Are you alright, Hiro? Bot fighting is illegal, Hiro!"

Tadashi wrapped his arm around Hiro's head and he grinded his knuckles against Hiro's head.

"Well it is illegal, knucklehead." Tadashi let go of Hiro and the two laughed. "And besides, a superhero shouldn't go breaking the law."

Hiro held up his hands in surrender, "Hey, I haven't been in a bot fight since we got arrested." Hiro dragged along behind.

Tadashi rolled his eyes. "We're going to be late, c'mon Hiro."

"Hey, think of it this way, if we're late we can fly on Baymax and beat them there anyway."

Tadashi grinned, "Maybe next time."

They left the building as the other's patiently waited for them. It was hard to believe that all of them were now superheroes, but none of them would change that fact. They were happy and all together.

As they walked together the two brothers without realising it both thought the same thing as the sun shined above them.

_This is how it's meant to be._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end...for now at least. I'm already planning more BH6 fanfics with Tadashi. But whether or not it's still in this universe is still being debated. What do you guys think? Sequel?
> 
> So look out for my fanfics in the future, but for now this isn't a goodbye, it's a see ya later.
> 
> Like it? Want to see more BH6 fanfics from me the future? Comment below, let me know! ;)


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